Mayor of Georgetown elected to Sub-Council of the Maritime Cooperation Committee
His Worship Pt Ubraj Narine this morning was elected to serve on the sub-council of the 21stCentury Maritime Cooperation Committee.
Mayor Narine was elected while attending the virtual forum and will serve a term of 7 years. His Worship expressed gratitude to the committee for its consideration and pledged his continued advocacy.
Please see his remarks below:
Thank you esteemed members of the Chinese People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries and the Fuzhou Municipal People’s Government.
Georgetown like Fuzhou is a port city and provides a critical link between the hinterland, mountainous areas and the coastline. It is the economic centre and hub for international trade.
Georgetown is also the capital city of Guyana and as such is the seat of Government. It functions as the administrative centre of our society and economy.
Climate change represents a significant challenge to cities like ours especially the threat of rising sea levels. Historically our drainage and irrigation system was established from the plantation system with kokers and sluices, however as time and population increase these structures have become overwhelmed by the increased economic and transportation activity. This is more challenged by the fact that Georgetown lies below sea level.
It is because of these threats that the Municipality and its Councillors agree that we must implement smart solutions to ensure the city is able to deal with these challenges to reduce the impacts of climate change.
Initiatives such as remote monitoring and activation of mechanical pumps to assist kokers during periods of high rainfall, using drone technology to monitor the impact of population on drainage and provide data on population growth to assist the Council to provide efficient services of waste disposal, the use of electronic payment methods to assist residents and business in paying their taxes to ensure that the services of the Council are properly funded and finally, contributing to the national data strategy to register properties and ensure that they are correctly valued and zoned.
Our recent oil and gas discovery has already impacted the infrastructure of our city, with its colonial landscape changing daily with many high-rise structures and a notable increase in traffic on our roadways. We must therefore embrace technological solutions to ensure that our citizens enjoy a good life and our business community benefit from safe, efficient services to promote their expansion and development.
As Mayor of the City of Georgetown, I support the Smart Ocean forum and welcome partnerships as we work together to build a world driven by data.
