Sport Minister Charles Ramson Jr. is keen on establishing a working alliance with local associations to foster the growth and development of sport in Guyana.
Work has already started in this regard as the Minister has met with majority of the associations in his first month in office.
Last weekend, he was joined by officials of the football and basketball fraternities on a visit to Tiger Bay. Afterwards, Minister Ramson Jr. spoke of the need to have the associations onboard the development agenda.
“If you notice what I did is that I asked the Associations to come with me. Why did I do that is because I’ve set the framework for the nature of the engagement moving forward for the entire period that I’m going to be leading this ministry, which would be in collaboration with the Associations as well as the private sector,” Ramson Jr. highlighted.
“The reason why we’re doing this is because sport has to be pervasive, but it requires everybody to be onboard and it requires all hands on deck in being able to develop young talent. Money is an important part of that and to be able to get tournaments going, and so we need to be able to foster the environment where we’re working with each other to do that.”
Ramson Jr. said the aim is to always keep the Associations “in the loop” with regards to development initiative being undertaken by the ministry.
“I don’t want our ministry to operate in a vacuum. Government is all across the lives of people and so ministries themselves, even though they’re responsible for territory, meaning they have specific responsibility to execute, it shouldn’t operate in silo, and the President is very clear about the vision and the direction for the government and the country in general and I’m just a part of that.”
Since assuming office, Minister Ramson Jr. has held consultations with the Guyana Cricket Board, Guyana Football Federation, the Basketball Federation/Association, Athletics Association of Guyana, Guyana Tennis Association, International Karate Organisation, Guyana Cycling Federation, Guyana Squash Association, Guyana Amateur Powerlifting Federation, Guyana Weightlifting Association, Guyana Bodybuilding and Fitness Federation, Georgetown Cricket Club and local sport journalists.
