- Report officially handed over the Finance Minister

Georgetown, GINA, February 26, 2004

The National Housing and Census report promises little population change but greater analytical planning and use.
The formal process of handing over the results of Guyana’s recently concluded National Housing and Census Exercise was done today at the Ministry of Finance.
Minister of Finance Sasenarine Kowlessar received the report on behalf of the Government of Guyana from Chief Statistician of the Bureau of Standards, Lennox Benjamin. Regional Coordinator from the Caricom Secretariat, Osmond Gordon was also at the handing-over ceremony.
The handing over signals the completion of the second phase of the census exercise. The first phase was gathering data in the field.
The next stage is for the report to be presented to Cabinet. The public will be notified of the findings shortly.
The census exercise is the total review and assessment of the full profile of the country’s population and building stock at a specific period of time.
The preliminary count will provide information on Guyana’s population by gender, region, households, institutions, location, ethnicity, economic activity and education, among other things.
Information gathered on each person could determine and garner useful cross-sector correlation data that can be used nationally, regionally and internationally.
In brief remarks, Minister Kowlessar said he would like to thank all the general public for its participation in the census exercise, which was done at the height of the crime wave last year.
He also expressed gratitude to Mr. Benjamin and staff for working beyond the call of duty to complete the field exercise.
He commended all those who participated and noted that the report was the fastest ever completed in Guyana.
Mr. Benjamin said that the greatest challenge was covering the rugged terrain of Guyana and getting people to willingly participate in the exercise.
The census results will be compared to two past reports and will also be used for regional and international analysis.
The Bureau of Standards, the agency responsible for the exercise, is hoping to conduct a media information workshop before the preliminary results are released, to sensitise the media to the usefulness of the exercise.