The Vice President of the Co-operative Republic of Guyana, Dr Bharrat Jagdeo, on Monday urged fishermen to consider alternative means of income within other sectors to boost their livelihoods when they are not plying their trade at sea.
The Vice President made the suggestion while speaking at the distribution of the fishermen’s one-off $150,000 cash grant at Lusignan.
“We have to change; our country will change too and if we stick with one thing then the people who are going to make the most progress are those who are willing to change.
“You can start small businesses, you have to explore that sort of gap with us… but if you don’t take this step and you complain and sit down at the seaside or the corner shop and only complain, things will pass by you, development will pass by,” the Vice President said.
He acknowledged that fishermen go out to sea periodically and not every trip is successful.
To avoid returning without money and having to ponder their responsibility at home, Jagdeo suggested “It helps if you can have another profession… You have to have something else to fall back on to. You can continue with the fishing, I’m not saying stop any fishing but you have other things you can fall back on. It is not very hard to go in and get trained on these things.”
He noted that there are many existing vacancies in several sectors including the oil and gas, hospitality, private sector and housing.