 ug must become tech incubator for green development ug must become tech incubator for green development ug must become tech incubator for green development webmaster thu 8032017 1508 in its quest to drive the intellectual processes of green development the university of guyana ug must become an incubator of technology president david granger said yesterday at the opening ceremony for the inaugural diaspora engagement conference under the theme dreaming diaspora engagement doing diaspora engagement the fiveday conference which opened at the ramada princess hotel east bank demerara will see over 200 stakeholders and leaders in the diaspora engage in various forums and symposiums towards the strengthening of partnerships with overseas organisations the university is central to fulfilling the scientific and technological objective which the green state requires the university must drive intellectual processes of green development by becoming an incubator of technology and the nurturer of skills and talents granger said in his keynote address while granger noted the strides ug has made in several fields he stated this country needs biologists botanists zoologists to document and study its unique and unmatched biodiversity it needs engineers to erect infrastructure in the hinterland also giving brief remarks was ug vicechancellor professor ivelaw griffith who sought to give a framework of some of the unstated objectives that he hopes will be achieved at the end of the conference alluding to the economic gains expected to come out of the conference griffith said that another unstated goal is to use the conference to inject into our economy some badly needed finances to help with job creation he added that it is hoped that the university will become a neutral zone that irrespective of your political apprehension or your raciallydriven or other related apprehensions you should feel comfortable working with the university of guyana griffith in a statement last month had said that the conference will contribute to the development of diaspora policy and a framework to effectively attract direct diaspora investment and engage the diaspora in nation building ug had also said that the conference will comprise three components an academic symposium a business forum and community engagement while the community engagement dimension will focus on building relationships with key stakeholders such as diaspora community leaders the business forum will consider the process for facilitating investment trade and enterprise development meanwhile during a roundtable session several ministers also engaged the conference on how the various ministries can aid in effectively engage the diaspora for his part business minister dominic gaskin told the gathering that he would like to see the diaspora invest in and visit guyana our domestic laws do not discriminate there is plenty of space for the diaspora to insert itself into the national economy he said speaking to the development in the infrastructural arena minister of public infrastructure david patterson said that the arrival of passengers in guyana is up 14 when compared to the same period last year the reason why this may sound like a really good thing for tourism i am about to complete a terminal at the airport which was developed as a project in 2011 at those initial projections in 2011 the projected growth for passenger growth was 4 per annum so you understand that if the current passenger arrival and departure continues it will be over capacity in 2019 he explained the conference also saw the launch of the 20172018 edition of the invest guyana magazine by publisher lokesh singh a businessman and guyana s consul to st lucia he said that for the magazine which was launched some five years ago with an aim of attracting investment into guyana they partnered with goinvest two years ago we signed a longterm agreement where this magazine is the official magazine of the guyana office of investment and by extension the ministry of business and government of guyana he noted article adapted from  https wwwstabroeknewscom 2017 news stories 725 ugmustbecometechincubatorforgreendevelopment  diaspora engagement conference president granger diaspora tech 