Media

– ‘Solar energy playing an important role in achieving energy inclusivity’

-30,000 off-the grid households to soon be electrified with solar through GOG/EXIM Bank project

Georgetown, Ministry of Finance, August 5, 2022: During his remarks at the Fourth Regional Committee Meeting for the Latin America and Caribbean Region of the International Solar Alliance (ISA) today held at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre (ACCC), Senior Finance Minister Dr. Ashni Singh pointed out that the Government remains strongly committed to advancing the national energy transition agenda including through promoting the use of renewable sources of energy, including solar energy. He said that solar energy is playing an important role in achieving energy inclusivity, particularly through the deployment of solar solutions in hinterland and remote communities.

The Minister reminded those at the meeting that Guyana has an off-the-grid population with these persons residing in hinterland and outlying areas. As such, he posited that ‘with the support of the Indian Exim (Export-Import) Bank, we have already concluded a project to procure and deploy 30,000 household solar units to bring solar electricity to 30,000 homes’.

Dr. Singh said further, ”Even though our energy transition might not comprise solar as the bulk producer to the grid, solar energy is playing a tremendous role in achieving energy inclusivity because even though it is at a small level, at the community level, from that one project, 30,000 households which did not have electricity will now have electricity. They were too far away from the grid to be able to connect but 30,000 households are now going to get electricity for the first time ever and similar solutions can be deployed for other remote areas.”

Minister Singh re-emphasized that Government is open to exploring various renewable energy resources and he also outlined its commitment and focus on ensuring that the administration achieves all of its goals in relation to its Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS) as contained in its Manifesto.

Key to Guyana’s Low Carbon Development agenda is clean energy. Government intends to utilize its access to low carbon development energy resources (Solar, Hydro, Wind, Biomass and Natural Gas) as a means of decoupling its economic growth from using fossil fuels for electricity. This will ensure that the rising demand is met and greenhouse gas emissions are kept low.

-reminds of Government’s commitment to ensure Guyanese receive quality health services throughout the Regions

Georgetown, Ministry of Finance, August 3, 2022: Senior Minister in the Office of the President with Responsibility for Finance, Dr. Ashni Singh, while in Region Six today, handed over to the Regional Health Department a quantity of cleaning and sanitizing supplies to be distributed to various health institutions in the East Berbice/Corentyne Region. The Minister was visiting the Region to spearhead Government’s ‘Because We Care’ cash grant initiative at the J.C. Chandisingh Secondary School and stopped at the Health Department to hand over the essential supplies on behalf of the Basic Needs Trust Fund (BNTF), a sub agency of the Ministry of Finance which receives financial support from the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB). Prior to handing over the supplies, the Minister also took the opportunity to remind health officials that they all play an important role in ensuring that quality health care is provided to citizens.

Minister Singh alluded to the recent sod-turning ceremony on Saturday last for a new maternal and paediatric care hospital being constructed by Government and also emphasized to those in attendance that Government wants to ensure that all mothers, expectant mothers and newborn infants enjoy quality and modern health care. He added that Government is also committed to constructing six new modern Regional Hospitals with one to be constructed in Region Six, as well as more health centres countrywide including a new one soon to be completed at Fort Ordinance.

“In addition to this, recognizing the unique geography of Guyana, we want to make sure also that we deliver quality health care even to remote communities, including hinterland communities and small Amerindian village, and we are going to be developing four telemedicine centres so that we can use the expertise that is located at the major centres like Georgetown, New Amsterdam and elsewhere and deploy that expertise to the benefit of remote communities as well,” Dr. Singh explained.

‘Whatever job you do, you are providing a critical service to a large population base and you are providing that service to people at a time when they are most vulnerable,” the Senior Finance Minister concluded as he urged that health officials in the Region ensure that they deliver quality care to patients in a ‘sensitive, attentive and compassionate manner’ while Government will continue to ensure that they are provided with the infrastructure and all the essential health supplies to carry out this service.

Georgetown, Ministry of Finance, August 3, 2022: As Government continued its second day of roll out of its ‘Because We Care’ cash grant today, Senior Finance Minister Dr. Ashni Singh while addressing parents and students at the J.C. Chandisingh Secondary School in Berbice, said Government will be expending in excess of $700 Million in cash grants to Region Six (East Berbice/Corentyne).

“I don’t want you to view this cash grant as an isolated initiative,” the Minister explained as he noted that it represents a much larger policy initiative being implemented by Government. We will ensure adequate access and we are building out enough infrastructure. I know that you have a high level of trained teachers already in Region Six. but you are not at 100 percent. Our objective is to achieve 100 % trained teacher status. Thirdly, we are committed to ensure that all schools are equipped to deliver quality education,” Dr. Singh added.

The Senior Finance Minister posited that Guyana is currently undergoing dramatic changes with its economy being among the fastest growing in the world. He also told parents that, as such, with all the opportunities being made available, their children face the brightest prospects over prior generations in the history of Guyana.

“Every parent wants their children to enjoy a life that is better than the life they(the parents) had. We all have an interest in ensuring that our children have a good education. It will not only have an impact on the children, but also your entire families, the community in which you live and the country as a whole,” Dr. Singh concluded.

The Finance Minister, during his visit to Region Six, was accompanied by Regional Chairman David Armogan and acting Regional Executive Officer, Mary Samaroo.

More than 23,000 students across East Berbice Corentyne are expected to receive the grant which started in New Amsterdam on Tuesday, on the Lower Corentyne today, and Upper Corentyne on Thursday. A total of over $719M is expected to be distributed in that Region.

Meanwhile, while in the Region, Minister Singh also visited the Port Mourant and Cropper Primary Schools where he checked on the status of the ‘Because We Care’ cash grant distribution and interacted with teachers and parents at those schools.

-as Government moves aggressively to roll out President Ali’s agriculture and food security initiative

Georgetown, Ministry of Finance, July 27, 2022: During a simple hand-over ceremony in the Ministry of Agriculture’s Boardroom today, Senior Minister in the Office of the President with Responsibility for Finance, Dr. Ashni Singh handed over more than $75M in agricultural equipment and materials to the Ministry of Agriculture as part of President Irfaan Ali’s agriculture and food security initiative in Guyana and this country’s lead role in the sector in the CARICOM (Caribbean Community) Region.

The items handed over included shade mesh, plain wire, mist blowers, shade house plastic and mesh, knapsack sprayers, water pumps, fertilizers, garden hoses, cutlass files, spades, brush cutters, wheel barrows, gloves, shovels, water cans as well as over 12,500 coconut seedlings and 20,200 fruits and ground provision seedlings. These are expected to be distributed to farmers in various regions across the country.

While handing over the materials and equipment Minister Singh pointed out that the distribution of the items countrywide, which will ultimately be done by the Agriculture Ministry, forms part of the much larger initiative that Government is rolling out to address the advancement of agriculture and food security and which is being led by President Ali, supported by Minister of Agriculture, Zulfikar Mustapha.

“It would be recalled that upon President Ali’s assumption of office in August 2020, Guyana very shortly thereafter resumed our role as holding the agriculture portfolio in the CARICOM /Quasi Cabinet arrangement, meaning that we are now the lead country on agriculture and food security matters, and President Ali has been advancing this Caribbean agenda for food security in a very aggressive way… to the extent in fact that coming out of the recent Summit of the Americas, where a special committee was established,” Dr. Singh explained. He noted too that the items also represent a significant contribution as part of the initiative of the United States /CARICOM committee which was established to address food security.

“Guyana has been identified in fact to Co-Chair the committee that is addressing food security and the Foreign Secretary is Co-Chairing the committee -The US/CARICOM Food security committee. But apart from the discussions and the work that we are doing to address food security at a macro level, at the national, regional and international level, agriculture and food production go to the core of the well-being of our communities,” the Finance Minister reiterated reminding those at the ceremony that agriculture has historically been the mainstay of Guyana’s economy with tens of thousands of families deriving their economic livelihood from the sector.

Receiving the items on behalf of his Ministry, Minister of Agriculture Zulfikar Mustapha thanked Dr. Singh and the Ministry of Finance as well as the Basic Needs Trust Fund for bringing into the Ministry of Agriculture the much valuable equipment and materials.

“This will help us to implement the programmes that the Government is rolling out throughout the country and is testimony to the government’s commitment,” Minister Mustapha underscored.

The Caribbean Development Bank’s (CDB) Basic Needs Trust Fund (BNTF) programme is one of its key instruments for addressing poverty reduction in the Caribbean region. The programme provides access to basic public services through the provision of social and economic infrastructure and the development of skills to enhance employability, community management and engagement. The programme targets the reduced incidence of economic and social vulnerability among the poorest populations in participating countries.

The BNTF programme in Guyana is jointly funded by the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) and the Government of Guyana. BNTF’s Implementing Agency (IA) Guyana began receiving Country Project grants from the Caribbean Development Bank’s Third Programme (BNTF 3) in 1993 and has continued to benefit. For approximately twenty-seven years, the BNTF IA, a Project under the Ministry of Finance, has been implementing projects across the length and breadth of Guyana. The main objective was, and still is, to contribute to poverty-reduction in targeted communities by implementing infrastructure and human capacity development projects. From its inception to date, BNTF Guyana has implemented 612 sub- projects. An estimated 52,283 persons directly benefitted from the projects delivered including 22,355 men and 31,079 women.

The BNTF in Guyana in recent times has made significant contributions to the Agriculture Sector with investments in excess of 380 million dollars. Some of its projects include:

(1) The Guyana School of Agriculture’s Agro-processing and Training Facility in Region 2, which when operationalized, will expose students to the requirements of commercial food processing operations and the techniques required for the development of new products and demonstrating to students, food processing as a viable business.
(2) Construction and equipping of a modern agro-processing and packaging facility at NAREI. The facility will be equipped with a pulp processing and tea line, to support value-added agricultural production. Training was also provided to 100 farmers and 20 extension officers in good agricultural practices and post harvesting techniques.
(3) A small scaled poultry facility within the Matarkai sub-region. The facility will not only help to meet the local poultry demands but also provide jobs for people in the community.

Under the BNTF, 31 shade houses have been constructed in partnership with community farming groups, NGOs and schools in regions 1,2,3,4,5,6,9 and 10. Training was also provided with support from partners IICA and NAREI.

Georgetown, Ministry of Finance, July 21, 2022: Finance Minister Dr. Ashni Singh yesterday during the 48 the Sitting of the 12 the Parliament lambasted the A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance for Change (APNU/AFC) for that party’s treatment of public servants during its term in office as he added that while pretending to care for public servants through a motion moved in Parliament seeking support for them, the Opposition Party already knew that there was no ‘policy’ which causes new entrants into the public service to be paid three months after they would have been employed, but rather, the issue usually resulted due to various bureaucratic processes fully well known by the party and which it was unable to resolve itself for the benefit of hard working public servants, between the period 2015-2020, despite its meek attempts. Dr. Singh added that the party was therefore being hypocritical since during its five years while in government (between 2015- 2020) public servants were treated extremely callously.

Highlighting his point, Dr. Singh noted that it was in December, 2019 that APNU/AFC’s Tabitha Sarabo Halley while Minister of the Public Service at the time issued a circular on the very same matter.

“Indeed in 2019…. the Public Service Ministry under the Ministerial tenure of Ms. Tabitha Sarabo Halley issued circular Number 2 of 2019 and that circular reads as follows (mind you four years after they entered office): “There is seemingly some misinformation concerning the practice of the payment of salaries to new entrants into the public service which is being relayed could only be done within a 3 months period. Please be advised that there is no such practice or rule hence, the practice and misinformation must cease forthwith…..”. The Minister indicated following his reading out of the entire circular that the circular clearly indicated that the then Government knew what the problem was and the Minister added that given the employment process involving typically advertisements, applications etc. and the process to formalize their employment, Government Orders being issued etc. and partly as a result of various bureaucracies, the process becomes a more protracted one for appointees, especially if persons turn out to work before the employment contract and appointment letter have been issued. On that note, the Finance Minister posited that it is the PPP/C’s position that persons must be paid as soon as possible after they receive their appointment instrument and/or their contract.

But the Senior Finance Minister not only alluded to the issue of the APNU/AFC not resolving the same issues they were bringing to Parliament, but he also pointed to other actions of that party which demonstrated their treatment of public servants, such as the forcing of thousands of public servants, including professional medical doctors, to move from the contract gratuity system to the pensionable establishment.

“They claim that they love public servants and they champion their cause….’you think the public servants don’t know or they have forgotten that you compelled thousands of them to give up their contract gratuity status and to move to permanent establishment status?” Minister Singh asked the Opposition Members as he addressed the National Assembly. “Do you know the effect that had?’ That had the effect of reducing those people’s emoluments by 22.5 percent,” Dr. Singh said.

“Many of these public servants were members of the Disciplined Services-Policemen and women, soldiers, firemen, they took away the one-month bonus from them….under the People’s Progressive Civic Government they used to get a one-month bonus ” Dr. Singh further reminded the National Assembly.

The finance minister then continued that many public servants who worked beyond the call of duty were told by the APNU/AFC Government that they should either take their leave or lose it and consequently, public servants who were already over stretched and hardworking were willing to forego their leave to get work done since the APNU/AFC Government told them that they would not be paid their salary in lieu of leave.