Georgetown: The magnitude of Guyana’s housing development is an extraordinary one and a success story, which should be shared with the region and further afield.
St. Vincentian Prime Minister, Dr. Ralph Gonsalves Tuesday made this assertion as he completed a tour of the East Bank Corridor and witnessed the massive housing development along that area.
“I do not know of any programme of this magnitude anywhere else in the Caribbean; in the Eastern Caribbean and the OECS,” Prime Minister Gonsalves announced.
During a visit to several schemes along the East Bank, including Eccles, Mocha Arcadia and Providence, accompanied Housing and Water Minister, Irfaan Ali, the St. Vincentian leader lauded the policies and initiatives undertaken by the Government to make access to housing affordable for its citizens.
He explained, “We in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, we are reputed to have the best housing programme, but this one , the scale of it, because of the amount of vacant lands you have is extraordinary , and the prices are very good. It is only because of the cross subsidy, the people of Guyana – I don’t know if they fully appreciate what they have here.”
According to Dr. Gonsalves the developmental model being adopted in Guyana also allows for the integration of private sector development, taking into consideration low middle income and middle income settlements.
Alluding to the significance of this, Prime Minister Gonsalves said, “I like the idea because of the amount of space you have, you can integrate private sector development houses of a bigger kind with the low middle income and middle income houses. Obviously when they are integrated they will give a particular effect; it’s extraordinary and this is a success story that must be told to the region.”
Testimony to his confidence and belief in the model, Dr. Gonsalves extended an invitation for local private developers to travel to St Vincent and to work towards further enhancing the houding development there.
“The state owned housing and land development cooperation does good work but also there is scope for Private Sector development and they have the liquidity and there are opportunities, obviously you will get a greater return than if you leave your money in the bank… the people also from the private sector who are investing, I would like some of them to come to St. Vincent to assist with the investment programme for housing,” he stated.
In turn, Housing and Water Minister, Irfaan Ali, acknowledged Prime Minister Gonsalves role in spearheading a new vision of the region and to leading the whole process of integration.
“I am very delighted that Prime Minister Gonsalves himself is leading this effort at looking at examples within countires and to see how we can apply different examples in the region to further strengthen our programme. Many people may not know but Prime Minister Gonsalves has a very , very strong social programme in St. Vincent and the Grenadines and that is one country within the region that has consistently done well and has been able to bridge the income gap, the equality gap very nicely, ” Ali highlighted.
As to the outcome of the visit to the various housing developments, Minister Ali expressed gratitude to Prime Minister Gonsalves for opening the way for the sharing of information and possible integration.
Ali explained, “He has given us some good ideas on how to further improve the housing programme here and to further expand it. I think he is indeed a man of the region he has a good understanding of all the countries within the region and the social fabric within the region.”
He continued, “We are looking forward to two things; to have our private sector benefiting from the integration with St. Vincent, and the Prime Minister has opened the door for investment there in the housing programme through the state owned company and then we also have a lot of private investors who will be here during GuyExpo . We are looking to collaborate to have a St. Vincent investment forum for GuyExpo and this is how the region should work together so that we can ensure that the liquidity and the capital within the region stays within the region so that we can build the region with each other’s strengths.”
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