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CDB helps 25 Guyanese contractors be more competitive
Some 25 small contractors graduated from a Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) coordinated Computerised Job Estimation Tool Workshop on Friday, and Guyana joined seven other CDB borrowing member countries in hosting this course.
This four-day training exercise taught these contractors how to utilise computer software programmes to accurately work out estimates for contracts on infrastructural projects and make competitive bids for the jobs.
The training course falls under the Basic Needs Trust Fund (BNTF) of CDB and is funded by the bank, the Canadian International Development Fund, and the Ministry of Finance.
This is the first for Guyana. A further 31 of these business people are scheduled to undergo the same training starting Monday.
Participants were selected as they responded to advertisements in newspapers and television, and Project Manager Michael Singh said the responses to the ads were overwhelming but the two courses had to be limited.
Finance Minister, Dr Ashni Singh, who addressed the forum, stressed the importance of participants utilising information and communication technology (ICT) not only in applying the training they received for designing job estimates, but also embracing it in their everyday lives.
He said that ICT is important to everybody from the child, to the grandmother, and to the university researcher.
He expressed satisfaction that these small businessmen will be using current technology to run their companies better. “ICT is utilised literally to transform the way business is done.”
Computerised Job Estimation Tool Workshop participants pose with course certificates. At centre standing in dark jacket is Finance Minister Ashni Singh.
According to the CDB the objective of the BNTF programme is to assist low-income communities in planning and implementing projects to improve their access to essential services through the provision of social and economic infrastructure and the opportunities for the development of skills to enhance employability.
The programme provides funding in five main areas: infrastructure construction, minor maintenance for education and health facilities, skills training and upgrading, institutional strengthening, public awareness and information, and project management and implementation.
During sub-project preparation and appraisal BNTF staff must consider thematic areas such as gender and environmental assessment and seek to integrate disaster mitigation measures into infrastructure sub-projects.
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