Carnegie to be upgraded for hospitality industry training
-CPEC project coordinator
Stabroek News
July 8, 2002

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A project to upgrade the Carnegie School of Home Economics to function as a training institution for the local hospitality industry is to be one of this year’s top priorities under the CIDA-funded Caribbean Regional HRD Programme for Economic Competitiveness (CPEC).

Other important activities planned under the Guyana component of the CIDA-CPEC umbrella in 2002 include the implementation of projects for jewellery training; strengthening the Guyana Forestry Commission; the continued implementation of the poultry HACCP (Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point systems) and furniture training, according to a recent press release from the local project coordinator of CPEC, Joycelyn Williams.

And last year, CPEC trained 510 persons in the tourism, seafood, poultry and garment sectors, disbursing some CDN$603,908 in the Guyana component, the release disclosed.

CIDA-CPEC which works in a partnership arrangement with the Guyana Manufacturers’ Association (GMA) recently held its biannual Project Management Committee Meeting at Le Meridien Pegasus Hotel. The CIDA-funded project is managed by the ARA Consulting Group, a division of KPMG Consulting LP, Canada, the executing agency.

The meeting discussed the performance of the Guyana component of the CIDA-CPEC programme over the past year and the plans for 2002.

The CPEC programme, the release informed, has been designed to assist Guyana’s industries to be able to compete with imports from international markets and to export products comparable to those markets.

Among those attending the stakeholders forum were Cam Bowes from CIDA headquarters in Canada; CIDA’s First Secretary in Guyana, France Asselin; Project Director at KPMG Consulting; Roger Griffin; Manager for St. Lucia, Melvin Edwards; and local CPEC project coordinator Williams.

Agencies that have benefited from the competitiveness programme were also represented at the forum, including officials from the Guyana Geology and Mines Com-mission, the Jewellery Association of Guyana, the Forest Products Association, the Ministries of Health, and Fisheries, Crops and Livestock, and the Guyana Poultry Producers Association, the release said.

Williams in an opening statement at the forum noted that a recent CARICOM Report had pointed out that the Guyana economy is the most globalised and most open in the Caribbean.

She posited that with Guyana’s small population it is natural that most of its exports are destined for overseas markets, while observing that the country’s economy has opened the floodgates for its domestic industries to compete with a range of commodities from various parts of the world.

The local project coordinator acknowledged the cooperation that CPEC has received from government ministries as well as private sector associations, including the Tourism and Hospitality Association of Guyana (THAG) and the Forest Products Association FPA), the release said.