Addressing the priorities
Less than a decade after Guyana announced its first significant oil strike to the world in 2015, the country has become used to parading itself in the global petro spotlight, the knock-on effect of its credentials having a significant impact on various other aspects of its socio-economic behaviours. It is the returns from oil, singularly, that have been responsible for the country’s first trillion-dollar budget, the details of which were presented to the National Assembly by the Senior Minister in the Ministry of Finance two weeks ago. Here, the country’s oil earnings underscores what, previously, had been an economy, the returns from which were, with great difficulty, fragile and near threadbare. Here it should be noted that these days, with the exception of gold, there is usually little sustained public discourse on the other sectors that had, hitherto, been lumped as ‘the mainstay’ of the country’s economy.
In just over a week from today, Guyana will be playing host to yet another contingent of ‘high fliers’ from various disciplines who will be here for the February 19-22 Guyana Energy Conference and Supply Chain Expo Press Conference. Some of the visitors can be safely categorized as ‘regulars’, oil and its prospects having erased what had once been the country’s description as a ‘backwater’ location. These days, the country has been shifting to the ‘front burner’ of the international business community as a priority location for investment seekers. Unsurprisingly, the country is still ‘entangled’ in the throes of creating a physical and social infrastructure that befits its growing reputation. Georgetown, the country’s capital, is currently in the middle of a makeover, evidence of efforts of a capital in transformation, manifesting itself in sights that range from the ‘chaos’ of a wave of brand new urban construction to new roads that usher in an altogether ‘crazier’ traffic regime that is hastily interring the age-old, more sedate regime. In myriad other ways, too, the capital and its outskirts are in the process of presenting themselves differently.
At some of the very highest levels, including those that have to do with the administration of the state, the challenge of having to ‘shift gears’ is showing. Investment prospects bring with them their own considerable demands and it would not be unfair to say that decades of a state infrastructure that had grown accustomed to functioning at a sedate pace – with inherent inefficiencies and in some instances, expectations of ‘kickbacks’ by state functionaries seeking ‘top ups’ for simply doing their job, has become a considerable ‘growing pain’ for a country that is ‘rising’. Some of the disclosures in this year’s budget presentation drop broad hints in terms of what the state’s priorities will be this year. The tourism sector, for example, will be significantly ‘souped’ up to allow the ‘high-flying’ visitors to probe investment
opportunities in comfort and while there is loads of money for an agriculture sector which, going forward, will have responsibilities related to regional food security, one can hardly overlook the reality that this is a sector that tends to break as many promises as it fulfills.
In other sectors, we are in the process of breaking down to rebuild, a process that is creating considerable angst and worry among those who are simply unaccustomed to change. While all this is happening, of course, there is growing pouting and fretfulness over what has become a widespread view that amidst the petro-driven transformation, across-the-board poverty alleviation is still too far down the list of priorities. More than that, the view that the oil-driven growth is lopsided, having not (as yet?) gotten down to dealing with the ‘bottom line’ survival-related issues - the cost of living being the most glaring one – remains by far government’s most formidable immediate-term challenge. It is in the country’s overall interest that it understands and addresses this challenge… frontally.