POSITIONS FROM THE PRESIDENT Discussions continue with Brazil on advancing road linkage in Lethem Ali calls for global prioritisation in promotion of social justice

Discussions

for the further expansion of the Guyana to Brazil road link will be advanced at the upcoming meeting between President Dr. Mohamed Irfaan Ali and Brazil’s President, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva May month end.

President Ali announced this recently, where he noted that this will make a huge difference for the local tourism industry. Last year, the head of state held talks with former Brazilian President, Jair Bolsonaro on the proposed road link. “At the end of this month, I am meeting with President Lula (Brazil’s President) to continue discussions on the further expansion of this road,” he stated.

Speaking on the tourism industry, he said the government has an integral role to play in the industry’s development, which is why the administration has taken a deliberate approach to advance local infrastructure.

Government is spending US$190 million to construct the Linden to Mabura Hill Road, which will eventually expand to the township of Lethem, providing a 24-hour road link to commuters and the business community. That same thoroughfare is expected to link with neighbouring able targets that we aim to achieve. Social justice must be a culture through which societies, nations and policies are built,” the head of state asserted.

Brazil.

The road link between the two countries is expected to bring major economic benefits to the township of Lethem and Guyana, opening up markets and expanding Guyana’s tourism product.

“We have taken a very deliberate approach to this, that is why we’re building out the infrastructure of this country in such a way,” Ali stressed.

Additionally, the administration is developing a model that will see the Lethem airport being transformed into a major municipal transport hub, unlocking massive opportunities for the region and the country.

As the Caribbean navigates the path to socioeconomic development, President, Dr Irfaan Ali has called for the global prioritisation of issues affecting the Caribbean, in the interest of promoting social justice.

Speaking during the opening ceremony of the Twelfth Subregional ILO Meeting of Caribbean Labour Ministers at the Marriott Hotel on Tuesday (May 23, 2023), the head of state stressed the need for social justice to permeate every fibre of the global tapestry. “For social justice to exist, there must be some guiding principles that will allow us at the global level to understand that global social justice is not a theory, but a set of principles and values that we are all going to bound ourselves by,” he said.

He identified three major crises affecting the world- energy, food and climate security, highlighting that these issues heavily impact the Caribbean nations.

Guyana’s tourism sector has seen rapid growth and expansion over the past few years. It has captured the attention of the global community, and Guyanese in the diaspora, who continue to travel to experience all Guyana has to offer.

With the surge of migrants into the country to experience the vast range of services and benefit from opportunities, the need for diverse and unique tourism products has become increasingly obvious.

It is against this backdrop that President, Dr Mohamed Irfaan Ali, on May 20, 2023 emphasised the need for Guyana to build a strong and resilient structure for its tourism model.

Speaking at the Tourism and Hospitality Association of Guyana (THAG) Annual President’s Award Dinner and Auction, President Ali said Guyana’s tourism sector has gained a lot of traction owing to local tourists uploading their adventures onto their social media pages.

Owing to the pervasiveness of social media, persons outside of Guyana became interested in its tourism products and travelled to take part in the experience.

The head of state expressed a lot remains to be done in Guyana, to successfully take advantage of the tremendous potential offered by the sector. “We see tourism as a centre part of the growth story for our country. Tourism is going to be one of the main components of the structure of our economy, now and in the future. Tourism has an important place in the country…We have to now work on building a structure around this model because it has to be an economic model. For tourism to be successful, it has to fall into an economic model that allows it to grow, prosper, and expand itself. For that to happen, we have to have seamless coordination between government policy, tourism developers, and financial institutions,” Dr Ali underscored.

He pointed out that years ago, tourism did not have much impact as it does now. However, the understanding of the sector is changing, and more opportunities are now available. “For a very long time, tourism was approached in a haphazard way…The model must bring a structure that brings along all the stakeholders, and this is what is key. The policy is important, but the policy is not the model. The model is what we want to implement, and what the core attributes of what we’re going to sell to the world will be. And the policy is what is going to support that model,” the president explained.

He highlighted that before the pandemic, tourism was one of the fastest growing sectors in the world, accounting for 10.3 per cent of the global gross domestic product; with a market estimated at some US $9 trillion and employing more than 300 million persons worldwide.

Tourism, therefore, has a massive ecosystem that surrounds it, the president added, while highlighting aspects of the tourism model in which Guyana can work to develop unique tourism products.

These include the addition of Guyana’s natural ecosystem into an urbanised tourism hub, integration of local production and stories with tourism products, partnership with other countries, emphasis on health and safety, infrastructure, improved standards, and better marketing.

Lamenting on the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, President Ali said this crisis saw an erasure of social justice. “It became a selfish enclave of protectionism. We must not forget that those who could not have afforded the vaccines are still waiting for them, and those who could were told that they were not a priority in the line. We understand that every nation must protect its citizens. But, if social justice is a global concept, then there should be global responsibilities. Social justice cannot be an event, or it cannot be targeted, and that is what we have allowed it to be, a set of measur -

Against this backdrop, it is crucial to build out systems that allow for people to be at the centre of the policies, and in so doing, recognise those regions that are particularly vulnerable to these challenges. “How are we going to calculate the disparity that exists and the proportionate responsibility of what is required? Would the system allow us to have that conversation, or would we ensure that the system allows that conversation? We may be too small individually, but collectively, we have enough to question the system. We cannot continue in a world where we know that these three crises will affect us the worst without having answers now. It is time for us to use these forums to advance our cause as a people of this region,” Dr Ali told the regional officials.

Further, President Ali noted that in promoting social justice, the Caribbean region should seek to develop a framework that highlights the value of work, and one that promotes continuous upskilling and education to match the global technological transformation that is currently underway. He explained, “Social justice for workers is accessibility to financing to ensure that the future generations of workers have access to education, healthcare and equal opportunities. It is not about creating the framework for existing workers alone. It is about how, globally, we are taking collective responsibility for the workforce now and in the future,”

The president noted that the strengthening of democratic institutions and the crafting of innovative technological platforms to train and upskill persons are important to building out a sustainable labour framework. “We have to create this understanding in the global system of our own circumstances and challenges. Today, in Guyana, we are building a system for the future; 20, 000 online scholarships, working towards making university education free, expansion of technical and vocational training…we are building out a framework of benefits and salary that will allow us to retain our workers,” Ali outlined.

The meeting was hosted by the International Labour Organization’s (ILO), Decent Work Team and Office for the Caribbean, in collaboration with the Ministry of Labour, under the theme ‘Social justice – the foundation for sustainable Caribbean transformation’.

The cocoa industry is currently being reengineered as the government aims to cultivate this crop locally and subsequently, market it as a tourism product to the world.

Speaking a recent event, President Irfaan Ali revealed that the government is receiving assistance from an advisor, who has immense knowledge of the industry.

The administration is also in talks with international scientists to aid in the establishment of cocoa nurseries here. “We’re speaking with scientists out of Brazil (and) India to come in and to establish the nurseries here so we can go on massive largescale production because that must be part of a model,” the head of state conveyed.

This forms part of a health and wellness tourism product that President Ali has charged tourism stakeholders to explore locally, noting that the story of the products is integral to its competitiveness. “Only two per cent of the world market comprise of Liberica coffee …So, we are now on a journey to rebuild the coffee industry,” Dr Ali pointed out.

Meanwhile, Dr Ali noted that persons in Amerindian communities will have to be trained as brand ambassadors for products.

Earlier this month, he held a meeting with farmers of Region Two, where they were informed that the Pomeroon has the potential to establish a large-scale coffee industry. Additionally, Agriculture Minister,

Zulfikar Mustapha during an outreach in Region Two last year said the government will be testing cocoa and coffee production in the lower Pomeroon.

The Ministry of Agriculture has partnered with the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) to restart the cultivation of coffee and cocoa there. “We’ll make those plants available for free, and we’ll work with the farmers to develop the plots so that farmers in the Pomeroon can once again be the producers of coffee and cocoa in Guyana. This programme should commence within another month,” the minister was quoted as saying in a Ministry of Agriculture press release.