Dear Editor,
I refer to Mr Eric Phillips’ letter in the Stabroek News on June 15, 2009, with the title “The Low Carbon Development Strategy is a new form of mendicancy.”
Mr Eric Phillips in his vain posturing for political office has started campaigning for the upcoming elections in 2011. His usual nitpicking has begun.
In his letter, he labelled the Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS) of Guyana as a new form of mendicancy.
And recall the opposition’s pathetic trend of labelling the acquisition of debt relief for the development of the economy as a form of mendicancy.
If these people are against debt relief and grants to propel growth and development, then I would think that they probably have a better plan. Let these politically ambitious persons, especially Eric Phillips, present his strategic plan, in order to eradicate what he conceives to be ‘mendicancy’.
Mr. Phillips needs to realize that any developing country needs funding for development. Government needs to spend more to achieve sustainable growth; and so not out of choice, it has to engage in deficit spending when there is a paucity of requisite revenues. And year after year, the Government has attempted to reduce deficit financing. If Mr. Phillips has a better plan, then the time is now to present his proposals against the existing context of limited funding for development, the international credit crunch, and the slowdown in the global economy.
Even though Government managed to achieve an enormous amount of debt relief, the need for loans will persist. The achievement of debt relief will benefit developing countries since it left them at a position where they are at low levels of debt, and this makes it easier for securing additional borrowing which is necessary to continue growth.
As a developing country, the paucity of resources is an ever-present menace. And so, the need to secure appropriate resources always becomes a mandatory exercise. The alternative in the absence of short-tem funds is an inadequate provision of services to the people of this country. If the Government does not secure grants and loans, especially in the short term, then how would it be able to build schools, roads and bridges, rehabilitate sea and river defences, improve the health sector, sustain the housing and water sector, improve the institutional environment, expand the electricity supply and distribution, build up a thriving agriculture sector, extend assistance for vulnerable groups and other targeted interventions, and perk up our business environment?
During the PNC era, the formal enrollment of students to secondary schools was only 33%. Today, with the help of the ‘infamous debt relief’, the enrollment of students to secondary schools is now 69%. Last year, $18.5 billion was allocated to the education sector. This year over $20.4 billion was allocated to the education sector with $3.6 billion for capital projects and $16.8 billion for operational current expenditure.
Today, with the assistance of grants and debt relief, Government is able to strengthen policies and institutions and collaborate with the international community to sustain economic growth and development in Guyana.
It, therefore, is sheer ignorance and sinful to label any government’s efforts to ‘seeking-out’ funds, even if those funds happen to be loans and grants.
Yours faithfully,
Elizabeth Daly
