‘Vision 2040’ pushing development in Indigenous communities – Min. of State
DPI, Guyana, Thursday, August 8, 2019
Guyana’s Green State Development Strategy (GSDS) – Vision 2040 is poised to ensure a better quality of life for all Guyanese, including those living in the hinterland regions.
This is according to Minister of State, Hon. Dawn Hastings-Williams. Appearing on the Voice of Guyana’s programme “For the Record” this afternoon, the State Minister said the government has embarked on the strategy which will result in Guyanese accessing the best from the health and education sectors and sustainable economic activities.
The first of its kind in the region, the twenty-year national development policy reflects the guiding vision and principles of the ‘green agenda’. The central objective being development, provides a better quality of life for all Guyanese, derived from the country’s natural wealth – its diversity of people and abundant natural resources.
Minister of State, Hon. Dawn Hastings-Williams on the VOG’s “For the Record” this afternoon.
“Vision 2040 prioritises investment in peoples’ capabilities, through training, retraining and skills development which will make it possible for women and men to transition from old to new jobs,” Minister Hastings-Williams said this afternoon.
The minister added that the hinterland regions are filled with natural resources and intelligence. Utilising these through the GSDS, many transformations is possible.
“We have these intellectual properties that need to be developed. All we have to ensure is that young persons in the hinterland regions are trained and retrained with the appropriate skills that they can use in a wise way to develop themselves, their community and country as a whole.”
With the coming of oil wealth, Indigenous communities are bound to benefit extensively, the minister noted. It was with such developments in mind that His Excellency, President David Granger initiated the establishment of towns in the far-flung regions. With the new townships, very important services including banks, are finding their way into communities, that before forced persons to travel distances to access.
“When we came in, we saw that these things needed to be corrected and hence we said, establish a town in these hinterland communities so that these services would eventually find themselves there,” she recalled.
As it relates to hinterland communities benefitting from the coming oil wealth, Minister Hastings-Williams said the government has a plan for the creation of a ‘Vision 2040 council’ to examine how resources from oil could be shared equitably across Guyana.
In so doing, she stressed that the government will have to consult with citizens in the hinterland regions as they will have their way of wanting to develop their respective communities.
“What might be more important to them, we will not be able to know unless we go and consult with them,” she said, noting that through guidance on investment, they will be able to live productive and happier lives.
Currently, ministries and other government agencies are preparing their 2020 budgets proposals to fit in with the government’s 2040 vision.