The Office of the President (OP) has reacted to the latest act of misinformation by Kaieteur News that air transport studies are being organised and created by OP, urging that the newspaper produce the evidence to support its claims.
OP in a statement stated that the newspaper also maligns the effort behind the construction of the new airport facility at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA). “This is the level to which the Kaieteur News has fallen,” OP said.
The Administration has rejected the claims absolutely and in their entirety stating that at no time has the PPP/C administration used public funds to commission a feasibility study in establishing a National Airline in Guyana.
“Cabinet has never been approached and has never issued approval for the use of public funds for such a study. Furthermore, at no time has the PPPC administration sought to incorporate a National Airline nor to establish such an airline as a national flagship carrier,” the statement reads.
OP asserts as equally ridiculous, the claim that the airway expansion at Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA) was an effort to obtain a new category from the FAA in the United States of America.
“The records would show that CJIA had that original category and lost it due to human capacity constraints. It was not any reconstruction or rehabilitation of the airport that is needed to restore the loss category.”
The administration calls on Kaieteur News, “to produce the evidence, to make public the documents they claim that show that this administration was involved in their ridiculous claims.”
The Guyana Government is moving ahead with plans to construct a modern airport of international standards. The new 14,000 square meter building will include multiple terminals, and an extended runway.
Government budgeted $4.5B in the 2012 National Budget to cover the cost of the project.
The Government of Guyana has announced that it will continue the One Laptop Per Family (OLPF) initiative with the assistance and support of stakeholders.
A statement from the Cabinet Office of the Office of the President today said that while the administration has contemplated the impact of the opposition budget cuts, specifically on its Information Communication Technology (ICT) 4G National Strategy, the vision which propelled the OLPF initiative has been affected by those cuts.
Thousands of the laptops have already been distributed to persons in the lower income bracket since the programme began.
“The Administration, refusing to be daunted by the most recent anti-development actions of the opposition has opted to pursue the more short-term component of the initiative, and that is, the verification and the distribution, using support and assistance from stakeholders,” the statement read.
“The Office of the President has declared, we will receive and, we will continue to distribute the laptops. The Office of the President further states, we are urging residents in areas of distribution to come out to assist and to support the effort to distribute the laptops, subsequent to verification,” the statement further stated.
The Office of the President categorically said that, “we will not allow the unconscionable actions of the political opposition in Parliament to frustrate our ambitions and our plans for the future of Guyana and for Guyanese. The ICT 4G National Strategy will continue to be enforced.”
The OLPF, pioneered by former President Bharrat Jagdeo is being implemented over three years, to benefit 90,000 families and communities across the country.
The criteria for distribution will depend on several factors including an income test among others for families to fit the classification of less fortunate.
The Guyana Government solicited the support of the Chinese Government for the supply of devices for the programme and the move resulted in a Chinese company being the supplier of the laptops and the setting up of a Haier service centre in Guyana.
The OLPF is part of government’s vision for the ICT sector which it is optimistic will lead the way forward for Guyana and will be one of the new sectors to generate greater disposable income and create thousands of jobs.
Guyana's Minister of Finance Dr. Ashni Singh today co-chaired a UN round table on "Reducing Debt Vulnerability, Managing Inflation/Deflation", while attending the United Nations General Assembly High Level Thematic Debate on the State of the World Economy.
The Minister in his opening remarks stated that the current crisis has seen many large and widely diversified economies of the world grappling with the challenges of unsustainable debt burdens, the need to restart growth in the face of fiscal constraints, and ongoing market volatility inducing price uncertainty and undermining predictability in investment decisions.
He pointed out that the magnitude of these challenges and the elusiveness of lasting solutions are multiplied many fold in the case of small vulnerable economies such as in the Caribbean.
He reiterated that the Region has some of the world's most severely indebted nations, rendering fiscal space for counter-cyclicality nonexistent. This situation is further exacerbated by the natural and structural impediments to productive sector diversification, and the close link between the Region's current dominant productive sectors and the fortunes of large neighbouring economies, as reflected in Caribbean tourism's close dependence on North American disposable incomes.
As a result, opportunities for growing the economy out of fiscal stress are extremely limited.
The Minister also pointed out that imported price volatility, such as for key commodities as oil and food, place stress on external balances and undermine the predictability of investment flows.
Against this background, Minister Singh stated that the UN had an important role to play in analysing the challenges faced by small vulnerable economies and, moreso, in helping to craft viable solutions.
He suggested that such efforts can manifest themselves in the definition of a new development model or paradigm that takes into account the realities and challenges of smallness, the definition of trade and other multilateral arrangements which recognise the implications of smallness, and the development of instruments to be applied by the international financial institutions to help small vulnerable economies return to debt sustainability.
He urged the UN to avoid the peril of focusing solely on large countries of systemic economic importance, to the exclusion of small vulnerable countries and economies.
Along with Minister Singh, the roundtable was co-chaired by the Minister of Finance of Morocco Mr. Nizar Baraka, and the Deputy Chairman of the Indian Planning Commission Dr. Montek Singh Ahluwalia. Amongst the panellists at the round table were Professor Jeffrey Sachs of Columbia University, Dr. Supachai Panitchpakdi Secretary General of UNCTAD, and retired US Senator Alan Simpson who co-chaired in 2010 the US National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility.
Minister Singh is currently attending the UN High Level Debate as a member of the Guyana delegation led by President Donald Ramotar, who addressed the plenary session of the debate earlier this morning.
Staff of Government agencies, particularly those which have been allocated $1, as a result of the Opposition’s budget cuts are still unsure about the future as many of them are still on the job with the expectation of being paid at the end of the month.
Head of the Presidential Secretariat, Dr. Roger Luncheon at his weekly post- Cabinet press briefing at the Office of the President today said that some agencies are in dire straits in terms of employment cost expenditure and utilities’ charges among others.
The HPS confirmed that there have been no talks between Government and the Opposition; but submitted that such discussions are indeed essential and the ultimate resort.
With regards to the National Communications Network (NCN) in light of the disclosure that the company is generating a lot of income; almost $500M per year, the HPS said that a study is currently being carried out; examining the way forward and analysing the management and the profile of expenditure.
However, he explained that this move is driven mainly by the cuts and not by any specific concerns.
“This administration has the greatest expectations of the functioning of State media… the state media has specifically been given an importance by the administration, both in terms of its contribution to development, awareness of the Government, abiding with constitutional provisions and sharing and providing information,” he said.
Among the staff that are affected are those from NCN, the One Laptop Per Family Programme, Customs Anti-Narcotic Unit, State Planning Secretariat, Ethnic Relations Commission, and the Government Information Agency.
