Dear Editor,
I refer to Karen Bacchus’s letter captioned “How many items attracted a higher consumption tax than 16%?” (07.01.12). She seems to have taken an apologist position for the government.
Why blame the IMF for the various travesties of economic policy and their implementation. We are quick to blame others for our incompetence and fail to take a look at ourselves. The fact is that the implementation of these policies is the issue in Guyana. “IMF type policies” have been applied in quite a number of countries, both developed and developing, with much success. Desmond Hoyte and his PNC did it under the stewardship of Carl Greenidge, the Barbados government have been implementing “IMF type” policies for the longest while and their economy is doing leaps and bounds better than Guyana’s, Trinidad is doing the same, Jamaica and I can go on.
It was the same structural adjustment and stabilisation type policies dictated by the IMF and WB which Hoyte successfully implemented that saw unprecedented growth in the economy over the 1988-94 period and a stable cost of living position.
The PPP came to government and benefited from the flow of the PNC implementation of the IMF/WB policies and programmes and what happened? As soon as Mr. Jagdeo took charge of the country’s economic management we started going downhill from 1994/95 to the present.
If we do not like the IMF/WB policies we should come up with our own or negotiate with them what is good for us. But neither the government nor the advisors/officials can come up with a package of policies and programmes to take Guyana forward. Oh yes, they did, casino gambling!
What has happened to the National Development Strategy? According to the new finance minister, the PPP has rejected it in favour of the poverty strategy. Now just a bit of an eye opener for Karen: the NDS was developed by Guyanese technicians; it is the single most important document ever produced in Guyana to promote economic growth and development incidentally coordinated by the same man, Jagdeo, who now rejects it for a poverty programme dictated to him by the IMF/WB.
Yours faithfully,
Evan Thomas
