–as economy continues to flourish
WITH Guyana’s economy back on its feet and citizens being able to embrace its abundant benefits, Vice President, Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo, says that job creation has exceeded expectations. Since assuming office in 2020, more than 50,000 people have become employed.
The Vice President made these remarks on Friday at the opening ceremony of the West Central Mall, which was commissioned at Leonora, Region Three (Essequibo Islands-West Coast Demerara).
“More than 50,000 people are working now since we got back into office and it’s a massive number,” he proudly said.
With this goal coming sooner than expected, it marks a tremendous accomplishment for the People’s Progressive Party/ Civic (PPP/C) government, which, in its 2020-2025 manifesto, promised to provide 50,000 new jobs by the end of its first term in office.
Underscoring that the former A Partnership for National Unity and the Alliance for Change (APNU+AFC) regime did not promote policies that catered for a vibrant and sustainable economy, the Vice President said that the PPP/C recognised this and vowed to stay away from similar ideals.
He said, “In opposition, when we examined the situation at that time, we found that there was quite a bit of disincentives to investments and we spoke about this publicly.
“We said the economy will not expand, will not create jobs [and] will not create wealth for our people, if the government at that time continued to pursue the policies that they were pursuing.”
With a clear vision of transformation on their agenda, Dr. Jagdeo said that his government basically started from scratch in order to get Guyana back on track.
Setting forth on a path to relieve impoverished persons of the burdens that were consuming them, while still promoting the private sector, he stated that this goal resulted in big debates, nationwide.
“…There was a big debate in Guyana whether the two objectives were not incompatible and that no economic philosophy can be built on achieving these two objectives at the same time,” Dr. Jagdeo related.
Defying nay-sayers, the PPP/C government, according to the Vice President, has proven that these goals can be achieved. He said this is owing to the number of implementations rolled out by the government.
“We have clearly demonstrated that we can capture both in the same economic philosophy,” he firmly expressed.
Moreover, training opportunities are being provided through the Guyana Online Academy of Learning (GOAL) and the Board of Industrial Training (BIT), among other accredited institutions, as well as through job creation across sectors.
A technical school is also being established at Port Mourant in Region Six that will provide training and job opportunities to Guyanese. In August, during a press conference, Dr. Jagdeo, said that the labour mobility should be celebrated, since people are now being presented with more choices in the job market.\
“You’re going to continue to have labour mobility. There is no position in the government where we can restrict that and it’s hard to compete with the alternative.
“It’s a right that citizens should have [and] this is something that should be celebrated too. There was a time when people felt they had no option than to stick with one job for life,” Dr Jagdeo expressed.
It is difficult for companies to find persons skilled in plumbing, carpentry, masonry and other technical skill sets, therefore, pushing them to import labour. However, this is unique to Region Four, Dr Jagdeo pointed out.
“The situation is not the same in other regions of the country [and so] we don’t want to allow large numbers to come here when our people in other parts of the country are still looking for a job. But because they don’t have the same level of economic activity in those regions, they can’t find one as yet.
“That is why we are bolstering this with a part-time job. We’re focusing on training people, we are urging them to be trained, we’re urging labour mobility,” he highlighted.
The government has also engaged companies to establish facilities to accommodate labourers from other regions, as a way to promote labour mobility.