Imagine the following. You enter a hospital. You are automatically registered and triaged without even the slightest delay. Much of the preliminary consultation is done by a robot and tests are ordered. The tests themselves are done by robots. Preliminary diagnoses are automatically done using the power of AI. Human doctors quickly review and medicines are prescribed and dispensed by AI-powered robots. If surgery is needed, an AI-powered robot begins the necessary preparation and robots assist doctors to quickly perform surgeries without the long wait people experience today. This is not a dream. This is already happening today in parts of North America, China, Europe and India. China already has a wholly-run AI-powered robotic hospital which can treat more than 1,500 in-patients and 10,000 out-patients daily.
The hospital of tomorrow is emerging today. The emergence of the AI hospital signals a paradigm shift in medical practice, moving beyond simple automation to a future where human expertise is powerfully augmented by intelligent systems.
Can this futuristic world ever become reality in developing countries? Can this futuristic reality become part of Guyana’s story? President Irfaan Ali says yes! More importantly, President Irfaan Ali says Guyana will embark on this road in 2026. From the president’s perspective, Guyana will play a leading role in bringing the futuristic hospital within the grasp of the developing world. The hospital of tomorrow, says President Ali, is coming to Guyana today. President Ali and his Government are ensuring that the global stakeholders who can make this happen, such as Mount Sinai, and Northwell Health from New York, are our partners. This is what bold leadership looks like.
Elections 2025 have come and gone. The 13th Parliament will soon (before November 3rd) be convened. In reflecting on the campaign and the promises and commitments made by the winning party and its presidential candidate, it is easy to see why almost 56% of the population wanted President Irfaan Ali to continue steering the ship. On reflection, while other political leaders were using the campaign to highlight their personal grievances, the campaign was dominated by President Irfaan Ali’s and the PPP’s messaging that spoke passionately about the Guyana of tomorrow. President Irfaan Ali, VP Bharat Jagdeo and the PPP team were talking about transforming the dream of Tomorrow’s Guyana into reality today.
In short, the dream of tomorrow’s Guyana can be described as our common ambition. Summarizing from what the PPP leaders were talking about, our ambition is for a society that is free, prosperous, socially-just, globally competitive and serves every Guyanese equitably.Every Guyanese must have a chance for a good education, access jobs, to work and earn good wages, salaries and benefits, to start their own businesses, to raise and provide for a family, to own their own homes and vehicles, to live in a safe and secure environment and to retire with dignity. Every Guyanese must have full access to quality healthcare, safe water and be able to participate in sports and recreation and practice their religion and culture.
With the emergence of OIL and GAS and a recommitment to the traditional economy of sugar, rice, other agriculture, fishery, forestry and mining, tourism, with a new emphasis on manufacturing and the new brave world of ICT and AI and the service industry, we can transform our country into a modern multi-dimensional economic enterprise. With the emergence of the OIL and GAS sector, with its vast resources, Guyana is entering a new age of transformational opportunities from which all Guyanese benefit equitably.
First-world looking new national physical infrastructure such as a new railway network system, new highways, new river bridges, new hospitals, new schools, new university campuses such as a new law school, new medical campuses, regional stadiums, regional cultural centers, etc. are part of the blueprint to transform Guyana. Making Guyana the digital and AI capital is a priority focal development area. The vision is clear – transforming Guyana from a backward developing country into a bustling developed country, one with international prestige and recognized as a leader in regional and global matters. The blueprint is clear – first, world-class national infrastructure; second, modern, clean communities with green spaces and; third, an empowered population with boundless opportunities for individual and family growth.
President Irfaan Ali spoke forcefully in the last week when he declared that the next five-years, in keeping with the party’s manifesto, a robust development plan will see Guyana leapfrogging ahead of other developing countries. President Ali stated “we are no longer a nation waiting on opportunity, we are creating it, shaping it, and owning it”. This is not idle talk. The new Bharat Jagdeo Demerara River Bridge today stands as a symbol of the new Guyana. The six new regional hospitals stand as a visible glimpse of the Guyana of tomorrow. The new hotels have begun to change the landscape. The President is on target when he said that while others talk, his government is working with a blueprint to realize the Guyana of tomorrow today.
If we examine the various development and work plans we will see the three planks of the transformational development. Plank one continues to be the transformation of national physical infrastructure such as bridges, highways, drainage and irrigation, sea defense, hospitals, schools, etc. These will not only improve lives, create jobs, but also transform how Guyana looks like. In short order, we will leave the backward-looking country behind. One of these projects includes adding a new railway system that compliments the highways and lead to improved transportation networks. This transport system will further be transformed into a modern, first-world transport network with new river bridges, similar to the new BJ Demerara River Bridge and the new Wismar River bridge. New bridges like the Corentyne River Bridge allowing seamless travel and trade between Guyana, Suriname and French Guyana, the new Berbice River bridge, the new Kurupukari bridge that will allow free flow to Brazil through the Linden-Lethem Highway. While these new initiatives are some of the actions being taken, the vision is clear – seamless travel and transport across the length, the nook and cranny of our beautiful country.
This first plank of national infrastructure includes the creation of a digital infrastructure that permits digitalization that permits the use of AI. This will change how we live, how services are delivered and bring Guyana fully into the digitalized world.
The second plank of the development blueprint is the transformation of our communities, including ensuring that no community must traverse along mud dams and streets, replacing all of these poverty-stricken relics into concrete and asphalt roads. All mud drains will be replaced with concrete drains, all streets will be lined with lights and all communities will be covered with safety cameras for better security. All communities will be improved with green, recreational spaces, with flood lights for day-and-night activities. Community nursery and primary schools and community health centers will be part of every community.
Plank #3 of transformational development will focus on individual and family empowerment, ensuring good maternal and child health, creating jobs, ensuring full educational and vocational training opportunities. National facilities such as the Maternal and Pediatric Hospital, a new oncology and neurology centers, a new lung health and sleep disorder center, a new robotic hospital, a new disability and rehabilitation center, a new ophthalmology and eye health center, a new dental and oral, new level 5 hospitals in various regions, including the new level 5 hospitals in Regions 3 and 6 and a new GPHC health center will not merely transform the health sector to a world-class health system, but also improve health for the individuals and families, from infants to the elderly.
Not so long ago, Guyana was the basket case of the Caribbean, one of the poorest countries in the world, and we looked the part. Today, Guyana is poised to become one of the most developed countries of the Caribbean. President Irfaan Ali has become impatient and wants Guyana to leapfrog and, instead of decades, he wants Guyana to get to our destination and our destiny, today and not in some distant tomorrow. Bharat Jagdeo who, as president, believed we could get there when we did not have oil now wants to see the journey around the corner, rather than some endless road to nowhere.
No matter how many times and how many documents the PPP government provides, the naysayers, not being able to deny the obvious development taking place all around us, fall back to their over-used and over-abused political posture of demanding “where is the plan?” or “where is the blueprint?” These naysayers conveniently ignore that political parties present their vision, their sector strategies and sector policies through manifestos. It is true that not all manifestos succeed in presenting a clear vision and that not all manifestos are able to clearly define strategies. Some manifestos simply itemize a number of actions or simply splatter pages with a list of disconnected policies. This was instantly visible for Elections 2025 in Guyana. The PPP presented a clear vision and specific policies and actions for total transformation. The others presented unrealistic “knock-offs” and strung together irrelevant AI policies.
Each and every time we hear one of the naysayers ask the question – “where is the plan?” or “where is the blueprint?” – I remember the iconic advertisement on American TV decades ago which asked “where is the beef”?
For the last five years annual national documents such as the revised LCDS, the biodiversity plan, the digital plans, etc. present the vision of the Guyana of tomorrow and describe details of how Guyana reaches that destination. While the naysayers keep asking” where is the blueprint?”, President Ali and his government are busy transforming Guyana to make the dream of Tomorrow’s Guyana reality today.