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Using oil revenue, Government plans to invest heavily in sports
By Rawle Toney
Kaieteur News – Backed by its new-found wealth, President Mohamed Irfaan Ali said the Government of Guyana is lobbying and investing, to make Guyana the premier destination for sports tourism and entertainment in the Caribbean.
The Government just wrapped-up its almost month-long activities to coincide with the hosting of matches during the Caribbean Premier League (CPL), including the finals. In fact, Guyana will be the host country for the finals until 2024.
President Mohamed Irfaan Ali enjoyed his time at the CPL games in Guyana, watching from the stands at the National Stadium.
Guyana Amazon Warriors Captain, Shimron Hetmyer, sharing a light moment with President Irfaan Ali.
A series of events, including sports, saw some of the Caribbean’s biggest names in entertainment gracing stages in Guyana, for a number of concerts and parties, culminating with a ‘Cricket Carnival’ road parade.
“We’re working on modifying our horseracing, to make it a premier regional event to attract international participation. Working in the motor racing industry,” President Ali said.
In the area of boxing, the Head-of-State added, “I’ve already asked a team to reach out to the World Boxing Council, to see how we can become a venue for WBC events.”
President Ali said the idea is to position Guyana beyond oil and gas, noting, “I’ve said it before, that what oil and gas does, it gives us revenue to build an infrastructure to support the advancement and broadening of the economy and that is what we’re targeting.”
An ardent cricket fan, President Ali, since his inauguration, has stated that forms and important part in Guyana’s transformation, to which he has since allocated a total of $4.7B ($1.5B in 2021 and $3.2B in 2022) towards the sector which is headed by Minister of Culture, Youth and Sport, Charles Ramson Jr.
In keeping with a promise made during his campaign, President Ali, had announced that the PPP/C Government will be building multipurpose sport facilities in Regions 2 (Anna Regina Community Centre), 6 (Blairmount Community Centre) and 10 (Mackenzie Sports Club).
Emphasis, according to President Ali, will also be placed on developing sports from the grassroots level, while also rekindling the powerful tool of sport in the minds of young people and that his Government will place “a lot of heavy focus” on school competitions and school tournaments.
Meanwhile, during his Teacher’s Day celebration message, President Ali said his Administration is also looking to revamp the schools’ sports programmes.
The Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports and the Ministry of Education, President Ali said, have been tasked with “bringing together our former athletes, put them into an accelerated training programme and then deploy them to the schools, so that we can revamp, reorganise, restructure and reignite sports as an important component in our schools’ curriculum in the educational transformation.”
According to President Ali, “We don’t only want to create children and students who are strong academically, we have to create rounded students, who can participate in all aspects of national life; that is part of the transformative agenda.”
The Government of Guyana use of its oil revenue is highly visible, and President Ali ensure he uses almost every media platform given, to remind the country’s athletes and officials, that sports will not be left behind.
The President sees sports as a “very important part of the transformation that we’re going through and that transformation necessitate investment in young people; investment in communities and one of the strongest component of that investment is in sports.”
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