DPI, Guyana, Thursday, January 18, 2018

President David Granger has indicated that the Coalition Government will contest the Local Government as well as Regional Elections.  The Head of State was responding to a report in the media on the government’s stance on upcoming elections and concerns whether the Coalition partners would contest the election together.

Speaking on behalf of the larger partner of the coalition, A Partnership of National Unity (APNU), the president explained that the party went into the coalition as a matter of principle because they believed it was good for Guyana.

“It is something we believe in. That Guyanese need to come together in order to resolve the problems of political division and economic development. This is the best way and we will stick together,” the President said.

The concern was raised following the recent publication of an article in the press which indicated that the parties (APNU, AFC) were contesting Local Government Elections (LGE) independently.

President Granger said he has not been informed of this decision from anyone within the party, he, however, acknowledged having read the article.

The Head of State noted the Coalition has brought a new and better dimension of politics to Guyana. He opined that the Coalition introduced “a new form of political cooperation based on inclusionary democracy and we cannot walk away from that at this point in time.  So as far as the five-party ship, the APNU, is concerned we shall go into the local government election and general regional elections as a partnership.”

According to President Granger, in the APNU there were two meetings held at the leadership level, “We have taken a principled position and I do not anticipate anything, happening within the country or partnership, that will change us from that position.”

On the 14th February 2015, the APNU+AFC signed the Cummingsburg Accord, forming a coalition. The Accord allocated APNU – A Partnership of National Unity 60 percent of Cabinet posts, and 40 percent to the AFC – Alliance for Change.

On May 11, 2015, the Coalition – APNU/AFC contested the General Elections and won a parliamentary majority and the presidency. The Coalition comprises of the Guyana Action Party (GAP), Justice For All Party (JFA), National Front Alliance (NFA), Working People’s Alliance (WPA), People’s National Congress (PNC) and the Alliance For Change (AFC).

The next General Elections is slated for 2020, while LGE is set for this year.

 

By: Zanneel Williams

 

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Georgetown, Guyana – (January 18, 2018) Stakeholders in Potaro-Siparuni, Region Eight, are now better equipped to prepare for and respond to emergencies within the Region as the Civil Defence Commission, last week, concluded the Orientation Session and Tabletop Exercise in partnership with the Regional Democratic Council (RDC).

The Orientation Session and Tabletop Exercise, which was conducted at Mahdia, was aimed at familiarising regional stakeholders with the draft Regional Risk Assessment Report and draft Regional Multi-Hazard Preparedness and Response Plan for Region Eight. The report and plan were developed over a four-month period, which saw several rounds of consultations with regional stakeholders as well as focused group meetings with communities, all conducted by the CDC.

In reviewing the draft report, the participants were able to examine preliminary information regarding risks and hazard exposure within the Region. The draft report demonstrated that the North Pakaraimas communities were most exposed to various hazard impacts. Further, key drivers of risk within the Region were found to be water pollution, dust pollution, floods, drought, crop pest and diseases, among others. The activity saw the successful completion of a Tabletop Exercise, which tested the operability of the Regional Multi-Hazard Preparedness and Response Plan. During the exercise, participants examined various hazard impact scenarios and simulated emergency response actions, which would be carried out by responsible agencies.

Acting Director General, Lieutenant Colonel Kester Craig said that the Commission remains committed to building Guyana’s disaster risk management capabilities through stakeholder engagements. This is in an effort to build resilience at the regional level so as to reduce disaster risk through enhanced preparedness and response capabilities. He also said that the completion of the plan will give the Region  the independence to manage its own disaster planning and resilience.

To date, the Barima-Waini (Region One), Pomeroon-Supenaam (Region Two), Essequibo Islands-West Demerara (Region Three), Mahaica-Berbice (Region Five), East Berbice-Corentyne (Region Six) and Cuyuni-Mazaruni (Region Seven) have completed their plans. The Commission is hoping to complete the Plans for Demerara-Mahaica (Region Four), Potaro-Siparuni (Region Eight), Upper Takutu-Upper Essequibo (Region Nine) and Upper Demerara-Berbice (Region Ten) by the end of the year.

The CDC remains committed to building Guyana’s disaster risk management capabilities through stakeholder engagement.

DPI, GUYANA, Thursday, January 18, 2018

Regional Executive Officer, Mahaica-Berbice, Region Five, Ovid Morrison today said the region is poised for greater development this year drawing from the experiences of 2017, where approximately 99 percent of works slated were completed.

The REO, speaking on the sidelines of the Action Roundtable for Regional Development 2018, said much was accomplished in 2017 particularly in the areas of Health, Education, Infrastructure, and Agriculture.

“We have established two Health Centres with modern facilities. The Mahaicony Hospital we renovated two emergency operation rooms so that we would be able to not only cater for the citizens of Region Five…but also we can extend services to our neighbour region, Region Six should there be any difficult condition.”

He noted that there were massive upgrades to roads, schools, markets and bridges in all 10 Neighbourhood Democratic Councils (NDCs) in the region.

The upgrading of Farm to Market Road at D’ Edwards, the rehabilitation of Masjid Street, Rosignol, and the construction of a footbridge between Number Four and Five villages are some of the works completed in the region.

In addition to the $4M allocated to each NDC, over $660M was also expended among these NDCs for developmental works.

According to Morrison, sums were expended for extensive drainage and irrigation works, given the fact that Region Five is flood prone.

This was deemed a worthy investment since it resulted in the water receding in a short time, bringing relief to affected residents.

Despite the false claims that continue to be perpetrated by some NDCs, Morrison assured that development is taking place and will continue this year in that region.

“Persons criticise …some communities the politics that they play say that they haven’t been [developing] I have available detailed funding of programmes that we did in each of the 10 NDCs so nobody can deny that.”

He also said that the Agriculture sector will receive the necessary boost with a focus this year on scientific techniques to improve the way farming is done.

“To let our people, understand, when you’re talking about agriculture, do not see it as a stigma, see it as something scientific. If you see if scientific you would then understand land selection is key to increased production and then crop rotation is very important to reducing diseases of your crops,” the REO explained.

 

By: Stacy Carmichael

 

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Georgetown, Guyana — (January 18, 2018) Minister of State, Mr. Joseph Harmon, was today paid a courtesy call by a delegation from Estonia, which included a member of the Estonian President’s Advisory Committee on the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) campaign, Ms. Marianne Mikko, Ambassador-at-Large and Head of UNSC Campaign Task Force, Mr. Margus Kolga, and UNSC Counsellor, Ms. Mari Tomingas. The meeting was held in the Minister of State’s office at the Ministry of the Presidency.

In June 2017, Cabinet members benefitted from a presentation from Dr. Arvo Ott, Executive Director of the e-Governance Academy in Estonia and as a follow-up to that engagement, Minister of Public Telecommunications, Ms. Catherine Hughes, and Chairman of the National Data Management Authority (NDMA), Mr. Floyd Levi attended an e-governance conference in Tallinn, Estonia.

 

 

Use of a non-sterile injectable product could result in fatal infections.

Ministry of Education, Guyana, January 18, 2018 – Today, in an effort to expand areas of continued bilateral relations at the Education sector level Non-Resident Ambassador (Designate) of the State of Georgia to the Co-operative Republic of Guyana His Excellency David Solomania called on the Honourable Nicolette Henry, Minister of Education in her Secretariat.

During the engagement, ambassador Solomania commended Guyana for taking the lead of bridging the State of Georgia with all other Caribbean territories even as himself and Minister Henry discussed areas of mutual interest for the further advancement of Guyana’s education sector through human resource and institutional developments.

These include opportunities for academic scholarships at the tertiary level to expand the existing subject areas offered to Guyana.

In her thrust to advance government’s proactive approach to revolutionising the education sector Minister Henry offered ideas for consideration such as subjects directly related to Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics, (STEM) as well as Information Communication Technology (ICT) for which the Georgian ambassador offered favourable support.

Additionally, the engagement addressed plans to support the University of Guyana via Student Exchanges with Universities in Georgia even as Ambassador Solomania offered the idea of the introduction of interfaces between academics and scholars from both countries.

Aside from thanking the ambassador for the offers made on behalf of his country to expand education scholarships, Minister Henry also mooted the idea of Guyana’s need for wide-ranging bio-diversity research support and promised that her government will review the educational opportunities.

“We already have students who have benefitted from our education development offers out of Guyana through existing agreements and it is our intention to increase on those offered in areas of Climate Change among other relevant subject areas in Georgia and Guyana’s best interest.”

Minister Henry also spoke of the opportunities that abound for mutually beneficial exchanges via Universities even while offering to enable exchanges and networking opportunities for the ambassador and the University of Guyana.

Formal diplomatic relations between Guyana and Georgia were established on April 23, 2012. Ambassador Solomania, presented his Letters of Credence to His Excellency Brigadier David Arthur Granger, MSS President of the Cooperative Republic of Guyana on Wednesday, January 17, 2018.

DPI, Guyana, Thursday, January 18, 2018

With aims to make business registration stress-free for commercial owners throughout Guyana, Minister of Business, Dominic Gaskin said his ministry is working to establish four more business registration hubs in Regions One, Five, Six, and Ten, this year.

The decision to establish the hubs is a short-term solution to assist business owners in these regions. According to the Minister, several complaints were lodged by commercial owners regarding the cost and lengthy hours of travel to the city to register their businesses annually.

“We wanted to assist them (commercial owners) because the consequence of that is, a lot of businesses were simply not registering. If you are not registered, then you are excluded from a number of formal business activities, and you have to operate under the radar,” Minister Gaskin explained.

He added, “Businesses not registering formally increases the informal economy, which is something we do not want. In light of that, we derived this system that would allow us to get those businesses registered without them having to travel anywhere.”

In 2017, the Business Ministry opened a registration hub for enterprises in Lethem, Region Nine, and will soon commission another hub in Mahdia, Region Eight.

“We will do it in any region where the process of registering is burdensome, and result in businesses not being formally registered,” Minister Gaskin emphasised.

 

By: Crystal Stoll

 

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DPI, Guyana, Thursday, January 18, 2018

Following the successful implementation of the Self-Sufficient Agricultural Economic Services Project, at the Hugo Chavez Centre for Rehabilitation and Reintegration, the Ministry of Social Protection will be establishing a similar programme at the New Opportunity Corps (NOC) located at Onderneeming on the Essequibo Coast.

This was revealed by Minister of Social Protection, Amna Ally, during a visit to the project at the Hugo Chavez Centre at Onverwagt, on Wednesday.

Minister Ally explained that “based on the success I am witnessing at the Hugo Chavez Centre, we are going to establish a similar project at the NOC. Because, we want when the young people leave the institution, they must have skills and they must be able to do something for themselves.”

The Minister pointed out that her office is currently undertaking a number of infrastructural works at the facility, to ensure that the youths are housed in a comfortable environment in keeping with minimum required standards. She said that once those works are completed, the ministry will forge ahead with the self-sufficient project.

In July 2017, the operation of the NOC was transferred from the Ministry of Education to the Ministry of Social Protection, on the grounds that the institution’s purpose is to prepare and train juveniles for reintegration into society.

The NOC caters to youths between the ages of 12 to 17 and most of those enlisted have been sentenced for the offence of wandering. It has a specific mandate to rehabilitate and train adolescent offenders and wanderers so that they could be re-integrated in the society.

The maximum period of rehabilitation is three years, or depending on individual circumstances it could be reduced to a minimum of one year.

 

By: Synieka Thorne

 

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A Instrução Normativa Conjunta entre a Anvisa e o Ministério da Agricultura tem por objetivo estabelecer um mecanismo para monitoramento e controle de resíduos de agrotóxicos em vegetais frescos.

Estamos coletando materiais e registros que ajudem a recontar a história de 16 fatos relevantes que moldaram a vigilância sanitária no Brasil.