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Guyana News Brief -- June 21, 1997. |
Minister of Agriculture Reepu Daman Persaud has pleaded with his fellow CARICOM Agriculture Ministers to obtain their rice supplies from Guyana. At a recent meeting in Belize, he made mention of Guyana's rapidly increasing rice production and received positive responses from the Ministers. Minister Persaud made specific reference to the problems being faced by the region's banana, rum and rice producers in the European market and challenged the region to pool its efforts in the negotiations which will be needed to arrive at suitable market arrangements.
The Mortice Primary School and the Mibikuri Primary School are to be rehabilitated shortly as a result of the signing of two contracts amounting to $15.8 million. The projects will be executed by the Primary Education Improvement project and when completed will greatly improve the capacity and conditions of the educational facilities. So far, the PPP/Civic Government has built, rebuilt or rehabilitated nearly 200 schools since it came into power in 1992.
The Amerindian populations of Guyana and Venezuela, especially those residing in border communities have been urged to continue and enhance the level of cooperation that currently exists. Amerindian Affairs Minister Vibert De Souza met with Venezuelan Ambassador to Guyana, Hector Azocar, and discussed closer cooperation between Amerindians of the two countries. Both the Minister and the Ambassador reiterated the need for continued cooperation between the two countries through people-to-people contact and trade.
President Sam Hinds will address the special session of the General Assembly of the UN in New York on Tuesday. He will speak for CARICOM on development issues and will be joined at the UN by Guyana's Permanent Representative to the UN, Samuel Insanally, and Ambassador to the United States, Odeen Ishmael. President Hinds, accompanied by Advisers Navin Chandarpal and Kellawan Lall, arrived in New York on the morning of June 21 and will address Guyanese at a rally later in the afternoon. During next week, he will also hold discussions with the business sector and will visit Guyanese communities in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Minister of Information Moses Nagamootoo who is currently in New York will also speak at the New York rally.
Minister or Information Moses Nagamootoo has just completed a successful round of meetings at UNESCO headquarters in Paris. As a result of these meetings, Guyana has secured over US$125,000 in assistance for media training programs in Guyana. Israel, South Korea and Malaysia have also offered two scholarships each to Guyana for the training of media workers.
. A 17-bed hospital was commissioned at Mahdia, a township in mineral rich Mazaruni, by Health Minister Gail Teixeira, implementing another component of Government's ambitious program to deliver health care to every Guyanese community by the turn of the century. The hospital built at a cost of G$22.2 million will extend outpatient care to the region's 11,000 inhabitants. It replaces a rundown, termite-infested cottage hospital that had to be abandoned.
Distinguished Kenyan scholar, Dr. Ali Mazuri, has been named the first head of a special history program, the Walter Rodney Chair, that has been established at the University of Guyana in honor of the late Guyanese historian-politician Dr. Walter Rodney who was assassinated in 1980. The Chair, which was created by the Government in 1993, will formally be launched in September at the start of the university's academic year.
The Elections Commission has launched a voter education program to make Guyanese aware of the importance of registering and to prepare them for orderly voting at the upcoming general elections. The program began with a workshop at which media practitioners heard from Elections Commission members of the role journalists are expected to play in the building of a democratic culture in Guyana.