Guyana economy set for `transformation like no other’ - Private Sector Commission

The Private Sector Commission (PSC) is upbeat about the prospects for Guyana’s economic fortunes once oil and gas becomes a factor in the country’s economy and says that the promise of this is already being manifested in what it says are “significant inflows of foreign direct investment to our shores,” a phenomenon that is “improving our external accounts whilst stimulating our economy.”

In an article which appears in the 2019 issue of Business Guyana, the annual journal of the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI), the PSC predicts that the country’s economic health “will improve drastically in the short to medium terms” against the backdrop of the anticipated coming on stream of oil production “in a matter of months.”

In asserting that it is cognizant of an increasing drift towards a positive national economic climate, the PSC says in its article that “businesses are forming, expanding, learning and building capabilities necessary for unimaginable amounts of prosperity that will flow.” The PSC foresees “investments specifically geared for oil and gas servicing” as well as further investments in agriculture, manufacturing and tourism, among others. These sectors, the article says, “are positioning themselves to take to take advantage of the massively increasing demands as potential and committed investors along with employees and other experts flood our shores.” Guyana’s economy “is about to witness a transformation like no other.”

Predicting that the years ahead will see Guyana attain “unprecedented and sustained socio-economic development,” the PSC article notes that already, Guyana is one of the few countries in Latin America and the Caribbean that has been growing positively over the years. “Guyana’s growth rate of 4.1% during 2018 is quite remarkable in comparison to the average of 1.1% in the region,” though it points out that much of the growth was concentrated in the areas of construction and the services sector, specifically real estate services, wholesale and retail trade and financial and insurance activities.

And while the PSC says that the addition of oil to the country’s economy represents “the rising tide” that is needed to lift all economic sectors and improve the standard of living and quality of life for all Guyanese, it cautions however about the need be “cognizant of the crude realities of the resource curse and focus as a collective on the management of the windfall that will soon accrue.” It pointed out that over the years it has stressed the need for “a strong framework for the oil sector through the creation of a well-managed sovereign wealth fund, an impartial petroleum commission and a robust local content policy.” The PSC believes that with these mechanisms in place along with “stakeholder participation in development such as public-private dialogues and partnerships, Guyana will attain unprecedented and sustained socioeconomic development.”

The country’s leading Business Support Organization meanwhile emphasised, that within its vision for an economically enhanced Guyana it sees the need for “critical investments” in the country’s social and economic infrastructure to advance the country. “With the expected improvements in our transport infrastructures, investments to realize cheaper and reliable energy especially for manufacturing and value-adding, investments in our human capital and modernisation of the regulatory and legal systems to boost efficiency, we foresee an investment haven and certainly a destination to do business.”