President Dr Irfaan Ali on Tuesday announced government’s intention to market Guyana as a prime destination for ICT services.
In this regard, he revealed plans to introduce laws that will support the establishment of data centers locally.
“Data centers and the development of data centers is big business across the world,” President Ali remarked.
“I’m pleased to say to you that today, the Attorney General and his Chambers, they’re working with the UAE, they’re working with five/six different jurisdictions that’s implemented data [centers] legislation. But we’re going a step further, we’re looking at the challenges since those countries implemented the legislation to ensure that our legislation is futuristic and captures the entire business environment…that is coming very soon.”
According to President Ali, his government has set “some very tight timelines”.
“By the end of this first quarter, we’re hoping that the legislation will be in the National Assembly so that we will have legislation to back data centers and create the enabling environment for persons to invest in data centers in Guyana.”
A data center is a facility that centralises an organisation’s IT operations and equipment for the purposes of storing, processing and disseminating data and applications. Because they house an organisation’s most critical and proprietary assets, data centers are vital to the continuity of daily operations.
Meanwhile, President Ali assured that in the next four years, Guyana will have the requisite legal framework to support any type of business investments on its shores.
“By the time we get up to 2027, I’m convinced that we would have the most modern legal architecture to support any type of development in the region and around the world.”
The Head of State further emphasised the importance of the next generation of leaders to start thinking of technology as part of the new economy.
Against this backdrop, President Ali spoke of the significant investments being made into the education system in areas of coding and robotics.
