Gov’t prepared to invest in information sector

-sees it as vital medium for engaging the people

-Min. McCoy

Minister of Public Affairs within the Office of the Prime Minister, Hon. Kwame McCoy says the Government plans to invest heavily in the information sector to boost capacity as it views this as an important sector for engaging the nation.

The Minister made this statement during his recent guest appearance on NCN’s “Budget in Focus.”

Minister McCoy says transmitting information is an important function of the Government, and one this administration takes seriously.

“It is absolutely important to continue communication with those very persons through provision of information, to be able to tell the stories where we are as a country, where we want to go, where we are heading, what are the new developments, how we are affected by these developments, challenges of the pandemic and its impact on our movement going forward.

We take that role very seriously as a Government because it is the means through which you keep people engaged, it is the means through which people keep us accountable and also transparent,” Minister McCoy said.

The Minister also acknowledged that more needed to be done to advance the sector and the Government is prepared to take those steps.

“We are committed to putting the resources in place, putting the resources to this sector to be able to make it much more vibrant, much more aggressive in terms of being able to be on top and on the ball, in terms of the information we provide.”

Minister McCoy said the Government has been working towards improvements across the media spectrum with regards to the universal principals of ethics and responsibility. He said the Government has also been focused, over the last six months, on cleaning up the state media and communication agencies.  This includes installing new boards at state agencies including at the Guyana National Broadcasting Agency, the Guyana National Printers, the National Communications Network and the Guyana National Newspaper Limited.

“We’ve commenced building robust systems to coordinate the information and communication two-way flow between the Government and the citizenry to ensure that the people are aware of Government’s policies, programmes, projects and how they can play a role and benefit,” he said.

Additionally, Minister McCoy said, the Government has other initiatives in the pipeline to advance the sector, including the establishment of a National Broadcasting Academy.

“[This] will provide opportunities to increase capacity building for the state media. The foundation for this will be laid after the passage of the budget 2021 and during the course of this year.”

Other programmes include refresher training, wide-ranging scholarship programmes at the certificate, bachelor’s and master’s degree levels, as well as an expansive regional and international professional study exchange programme.

Senior Minister in the Office of the President with responsibility for Finance, Dr. Ashni Singh laid the $383.1 billion 2021 fiscal package in the National Assembly two weeks ago.