Guyana’s Minister of Public Telecommunication, Cathy Hughes, says Information Communication Technology (ICT) has become the main ingredient for development globally and the South American country will be moving to ensure that the ICT sector is prepared for the emerging oil and gas industry.
Mrs. Hughes was speaking at the time during the second day of debates in Guyana’s National Assembly, following the presentation of a G$267.1B National Budget for the coming year. The budget was presented a week ago.
In making her contribution to the debates over the 2018 Estimates, Mrs. Hughes told the House of “the ground-breaking work we have done, and what we plan to do to get Guyana ready for the economic leaps and bounds Guyana has to take … with our hydrocarbon industry, increased production, increased investments, and so on.”
According to the Minister, “The mandate of the Ministry of Public Telecommunications is to transform Guyana into a knowledge-based, well-educated society with people and businesses that are productive and globally competitive…ICT has become the main ingredient for development all over the world, so it was imperative that Guyana and all of its peoples become proficient, and able to partake in the exciting future that lies ahead of us.”
As such, she informed the House that the Ministry is fully cognizant of the role it has to play “in preparing the local ICT sector for our rapidly emerging oil and gas Industry.”
Mrs. Hughes further stated, “as a priority, we initiated several events and programmes to achieve some clearly defined objectives in keeping with our mandate to create wealth, employment, comfort and ease-of-living…Of course; these programmes are in step with Government’s policy objectives and the Ministry’s work programme.”
