GEORGETOWN, Guyana (GINA) -- Guyana is to benefit from a US$1.5 million grant for its health sector, and will also receive assistance from the Islamic Republic of Iran to map its mineral resources. This was revealed by President Bharrat Jagdeo on Wednesday during a press conference at the Office of the President, where he discussed his recent trip to the Middle East that included visits to Kuwait and Iran.

"I had several discussions with the Supreme Leader of Iran (Ayatollah Ali Khamenei) and the President of Iran (Mahmoud Ahmadinejad) and many of his Ministers. We signed two Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs). The first has to do with a US$1.5 million grant for the health sector and the second has to do with the removal of restrictions on visa requirement for diplomatic travel," the Head of State told the media.

He noted that the Iranian government was interested in building a health care delivery facility, but was dissuaded by his entreaties to have the money used instead to construct an educational institution that will focus on specialized medical training.

Jagdeo went on to explain that through the Cuban scholarship programme, Guyana now has "about 750 students, who have just completed their studies in medicine, or are currently in universities abroad continuing studies". However, while this will ensure that the country's health care system has enough general medical practitioners to oversee the numerous hospitals across Guyana, there still exists a deficiency of medical specialists, such as cardiologists, ENT (ear, nose and throast) specialists and others.

"The number of scholarships to Cuba for people specializing in medicine is limited. We have had to recruit people from different countries to come here and work as specialists. We will continue to do so in the short-term but clearly we need to, out of these large numbers of students who will be young doctors, choose from them, the best and the brightest, to go on to specialize," he said. To this end, Jagdeo stated that he suggested to President Ahmadinejad that Guyana is prepared to construct an educational facility focusing on specialized medicine if Iran is prepared to provide the faculty.

"If they were to send the teachers from Iran to work with our young doctors, to have them specialize in the different areas...our hospitals could have adequate numbers of specialists which would allow us to improve the quality of health care and offer significantly higher levels of services, including tertiary care," he indicated. This request, he noted, was because "Iran has developed some significant capacities in the area of health care provision". The President said that the Iranian President responded positively to his entreaty and Guyana will now have to restructure the grant to its new purpose.

"If we succeed in this, we would be able, over a period - maybe the next five years, to not only run our entire health system with junior doctors but also have specialists who are Guyanese in all of these areas which would ultimately be more sustainable." Assistance to map Guyana's mineral resources The President also noted that because of Iran's size, unique nature and geographical location, which is prone to earthquakes, it has had to develop tremendous capacities in the geo-sciences. These capacities can also be utilized to map mineral potential or resources, and Iran has offered to extend these services to Guyana to map its mineral wealth.

"For a very long time in Guyana, we have, because of the absence of data on our mineral wealth, we have relied on investors to seek prospecting licences and then, in a hit-or-miss way, develop a project," President Jagdeo stated. "A mission will come soon to work with the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC) and I spoke this morning with Woolford (the GGMC Commissioner) and he was very excited about this because for a very long time, they have been trying to get this funded," he revealed.

"At the end of that project, we will be able to have a much more planned development of the sector with greater benefits to the country." The Head of State also revealed that the two countries discussed the possibility of Iran supplying Guyana with agricultural implements.

"They (Iran) are already producing in Venezuela Massey Ferguson tractors and the rates are very competitive. We are hoping to work out an arrangement where we will receive some of those tractors."