Govt. meets Chinese Embassy on OLPF, E-Governance projects

Aug 14, 2015 News

Government has met with the senior officials of the Chinese Embassy over its One Laptop Per Family and E-Governance projects.
According to the Ministry of the Presidency, the Government of Guyana is reaffirming its commitment to making Guyana an “education nation” – a task that can only be done through preparing teachers, institutions and communities to carry out their mandates of teaching and forming young minds with the use of technology.
Yesterday, Minister of State, Joseph Harmon, met with China’s Ambassador to Guyana, Zhang Limin.
The Minister and the Ambassador discussed issues relative to the final shipment of laptop computers to be shipped from China, the E-Governance Unit, and the operationalizing of the E-Governance Network.
Some 10,000 laptops are on their way from China, as part of the OLPF project.

Minister Harmon and staffers meeting with officials of the Chinese Embassy yesterday.

The project itself ran into problems because of funding and a number of logistical problems.
Following a visit to the Queenstown secretariat a few weeks ago, Harmon had expressed dissatisfaction over the situation there. There was significant quantity of laptops that were defective and staffers were not doing anything much.
The contracts of a number of workers were ended, with Government saying there was no money.
The OLPF project involved the acquisition and distribution of 90,000 laptops to poor families.
It was all part of Guyana’s thrust to move the country into the technological age.
According to the Ministry of the Presidency, Government has requested technical support from the Chinese computer company, Huawei, to help test the operating system and train personnel for the operations of the laptops.
“Ambassador Limin agreed to provide the necessary support in this regard.”
In addition to the OLPF, the running of the E-Governance Unit and the network was also raised with the Ambassador.
The E-Governance project is geared to connect state facilities using a network. Over 50 towers have been built across the coastlands, stretching from Moleson Creek to Essequibo.
A critical element, a fibre optic internet link from Brazil, has been shelved because of technical problems.
More than US$60M has been spent on the fibre-optic cable and E-Governance projects, it has been reported.
Harmon was accompanied yesterday by Advisor on E-Governance, Floyd Levi.