Bigger roles for regions during decade of development.
─ collaboration crucial to success
DPI, Guyana, Thursday, January 16, 2020
Minister of Communities, the Hon. Ronald Bulkan says regional administrations will have a larger role to play in delivering the good life to Guyanese, during this decade of development.
He was delivering remarks at Thursday’s opening of a two-day meeting on regional development at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre.
The “forward-thinking, people-centred” 10-year developmental plan, introduced by His Excellency President David Granger, will guide the work programme of each administrative region.
“It is aimed at ensuring that the fiscal expansion due to petroleum production results in tangible benefits to each citizen. The decade of development plan has four main pillars- governance, environment, social services and security,” the minister noted.
Minister Bulkan said the roles of the regions would be critical in the implementation of the plan, especially since programmes listed for major overhaul – education, health and infrastructure – were also administered by them.
“The plan accords the highest priority to public education. The educational objective will be to ensure that every child attends school and every child matriculate from secondary school.
Moreover, the region would have an important role to play in the plan for public health, which would see the extension of universal primary healthcare. It is envisaged that every citizen as far as practicable, will be able to access health services within 15 kilometres of his or her residence,” Min. Bulkan stated
In this new era of development, the communities minister noted that collaboration would assume a more significant role as the government seeks to develop sustainable communities in which residents can enjoy a ‘good life’.
Meanwhile, the communities minister noted that as a petroleum-producing state, citizen’s expectation of public administrators would rightly be heightened and as such President Granger’s plan of the good life should be vigorously pursued through regional services.
The meeting is being held under the theme “advancing local government through the enhanced collaboration for effective service delivery in a green economy.”