Guyana And India Sign MOU To Establish ICT Centre

GEORGETOWN, Guyana, Apr. 21, (CMC) – A memorandum of understanding (MOU) has been signed between Guyana and India for the establishment of an Information Communication and Technology (ICT) Centre of excellence here.

Valued at US$1-million, the agreement was signed by junior minister, Joseph Harmon, and India’s High Commissioner in Guyana, Venkatachalam Mahalingam.

This Centre will provide training for public sector ICT professionals to ensure the availability of a highly skilled ICT workforce, equipped with the requisite expertise to meet the increasingly complex demands of the public and private sectors.

Indian High Commissioner to Guyana, Venkatachalam Mahalingam, left, and Joseph Harmon sign MOU.

Harmon noted that the MOU caters for the creation and operation of the ICT centre, which will be based at the National Data Management Building at the University of Guyana Complex.

During the first two years of the project, training of trainers will be completed, following which the facility will be handed over to the government of Guyana.

“The parties will cooperate in the identification of required areas of training, the establishment of a centre for training in ICT with two class rooms of 25 students each, in the provision of academic material to train up to 500 students per year for two years, among others,” Harmon was quoted as saying in a statement issued by the Ministry of the Presidency.

The Centre is scheduled to open within the next three to six months.

According to Mahalingam, the Centre will provide an opportunity for the development of the country and the people of Guyana, which his government was pleased to facilitate.

“We have been waiting for this for a long time and finally it happened. This is only the first step. There are a lot of things that we need to do. We need to correspond with each other. We need to make the facilities available on your end… I am sure that this is going to be a real good opportunity for Guyanese to have training on various aspects of IT Management and we look forward to working together,” Mahalingam said.