Guyana’s Finance Minister Dr. Ashni Singh has re-emphasized the government’s commitment to ensuring that all citizens will be able to participate in the country’s economic transformation.
He made the statement as he signed a US$44-million Human Capital Development agreement with the World Bank.
The agreement will see Guyana strengthening its human capital through a major project in the education sector.
Witnessing the signing and receiving the project for implementation was Education Minister Priya Manickchand while signing on behalf of the World Bank was Resident Representative to Guyana Diletta Doretti.
The signing took place on Friday at the Ministry of Finance in the presence of technical teams from both the Ministries of Finance and Education.
“We are signing this US$44M project on Human Capital Development today as a significant part of a much broader and comprehensive policy agenda relating to an investment in the people of Guyana. There is a lot of understandable excitement and anticipation about the rapid transformation that our country is going through the economic and structural transformation. There is a lot of excitement about what’s happening in the oil and gas sector, what’s happening in the support services sector, what’s happening in the non-oil economy,” Singh said.
He then underscored that, as such, with all of these developments the People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPP/C) Government, under the leadership of President Ali, believes there is no investment that is more important at this time than an investment in Guyanese to meet the skills and education needs of these sectors.
“The reality is that a very different workforce is going to be needed in the near future to meet the needs of this new economy,” Dr. Singh explained as he alluded to the fact that the immediate link of various developments in different sectors may not be seen immediately by persons in terms of the wholistic approach and objective by the government.
World Bank Representative for Guyana and Suriname, Diletta Doretti in her remarks noted that Guyana is investing heavily in its citizens, with education and vocational training playing a key role as the country is at a key juncture of its growth. She added that, “This project complements other education initiatives that the World Bank is supporting, as the government is working to ensure that more people can acquire the needed skills to benefit from the ongoing economic transformation.”
The objective of the project is to improve access and learning conditions in secondary education, as well as access to technical and vocational education and training aligned with identified labor market needs.
The proposed project would support the government’s secondary education reform agenda and its objective of achieving universal secondary education. It would support different trajectories and modalities of obtaining an education by incorporating interventions addressing constraints related to access, quality, and relevance to help youth in Guyana reach their full potential and participate productively in the economy.
CMC/
