Hon. Minister Susan M. Rodrigues, M.P.
Minister within the Ministry of Housing & Water
Ministry of Housing & Water
Dream Realised – on 16th October 2020, National Stadium Providence
His Excellency President Dr. Mohamed Irfaan Ali, Minister of Housing and Water, Hon. Collin
Croal, Permanent Secretary of the Ministry Andre Ally, CEO of the Central Housing and Planning
Authority, Chairman, Board Members and staff of CH&PA, dignitaries, special invitees, the press,
and of course, the reason we are here today, the recipients of titles and transports.

As the Minister within the Ministry of Housing and Water I wish to take this opportunity to
personally thank His Excellency for gracing us with his presence and for joining us in celebrating
and highlighting the accomplishment of the persons who will be receiving their land titles and
transports today.

Perhaps one of the biggest achievements in a person’s life is the ownership of their own home. It
brings with it a sense of pride, fulfilment and security. It opens the door to endless opportunities,
such as access to lending institutions, climbing the social ladder, and leaving an inheritance for
your children, thereby providing the next generation with a stepping stone on which to begin their
own lives. Under the leadership of President Ali, the housing sector will be restored to the place it
once enjoyed, and will be steered to move beyond allocation of house lots but will focus mainly
on encouraging, promoting and facilitating home ownership and community building. We are
determined to provide every Guyanese family with a decent home, in a safe, secure and proper
neighbourhood; not as squatters or tenants, but as responsible and proud owners with titles that
banks and other lending institutions will regard as good security.

Our Housing Development Programme is designed to implement national housing and settlement
policies through an efficient, well-planned, coordinated and structured framework, in order to
realise the development of sustainable, affordable and modern settlements. Our Government will
deliver serviced lots through a comprehensive and coordinated approach among all of the agencies
involved, so that Guyanese of all income brackets can enjoy a community lifestyle. Our country is

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on the cusp of a great economic explosion and we believe and will make it possible for our country
to benefit from that development, and for Guyanese of all walks of life to experience a significant
elevation in their standard of living. It is true that we have inherited many challenges, but our
government is committed to exploring all opportunities which will allow us to provide lots and
homes in communities with proper roads, drainage, water, electricity, street lights, recreational and
shopping centres with the aim to transform the landscape of our country, making it the envy of the
Caribbean and South America.

With the peaked interest of tourists around the globe about our country, it is important that we
encourage a sense of national pride and patriotism, and with the influx of foreign investors we
must be willing as a nation to embrace the technological advances in the construction sector which
will provide opportunities for training and further expedite the construction of homes thereby
allowing us to fulfill our manifesto promise of 50,000 lots. Our government has already signaled
its interest in ensuring the requisite policy measures are put in place to encourage home ownership,
including increasing the ceiling for mortgage interest relief from $15M to $30M and moving the
low-income threshold for loans from $8M to $10M, thereby allowing greater access to financial
resources.

But of course, government alone cannot deliver such a transformational agenda, and therefore we
must meaningfully engage the private sector and private partners, some of whom are here today in
the form of the banks and insurance companies, among others. The private sector input will allow
our government to make that transformation a reality and will help us to deliver on our
commitments even more quickly because our people have waited long enough and they have
elected a government whom they trust to manage their future and the resources of our country.

I wish to close by congratulating the title and transport recipients. As you walk across this stage a
little later to receive your title, you should be proud of yourselves, appreciating your own efforts
and sacrifices to get to this point, and realizing the significance of your achievement. I wish you
all the best in the future and I assure you that our engagement does not end here today, but that we
will continue to be of service to you as you pursue the next step in your home ownership journey
and in making your dream realised. Thank you.