Introduction
This week I am going to examine the PPP/C’s pubic investment strategy. In last week’s column I had identified this as the first of four sequential phases involved in the management of Guyana’s public investment programme that I would later examine. Unlike a number of other poor developing countries Guyana does not have a functioning Ministry of Planning or autonomous Planning Commission/National Agency directly responsible for preparing and superintending the country’s National Development Plan.
The situation, however, is not hopeless. Despite this absence, there are several source documents from which one can confidently articulate the government’s strategic vision for securing long-term development. Included in these are the National Development Strategy, (NDS); the Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSP); the low-carbon development strategy (LCDS); the Guyana National Competiveness Strategy (GNCS); and, the Manifesto of the People’s Progressive Party/Civic. Importantly, in addition to these, there are the sector strategies prepared by government ministries and agencies, as well as state-owned enterprises.
In what follows below, I shall briefly introduce these documents. It should be stressed at the outset that, I do not offer at this time anything resembling a critique of these source documents. My sole intention here is to indicate to readers their scope and coverage of the issues pertaining to the derivation of the Government’s public investment strategy for Guyana.
Source documents
NDS
Guyana’s National Development Strategy (NDS) is a civil society effort, produced in collaboration with public service officials and technocrats. Version 1 (1996) comprises six volumes, two of which are directly relevant to the construction of an investment programme and its management. These are: 1) Volume 1, which presents a synthesis of the development strategy and includes chapters on Guyana’s development objectives, the principal thrusts of the development strategy, and sectoral policies for the macroeconomy, social sectors, production sectors, and infrastructure; 2) Volume II which directly addresses the long-term investment programme and its legislative requirements. Version 2 of the NDS updates the strategy in 2000. Apart from the PRSP, which is introduced next, this is the most explicit delineation of the thinking behind an appropriate investment strategy for Guyana.
PRSP
The first PRSP was produced in 2001. This was done in collaboration with the major international financial institutions (IFIs). It set itself the main goal of achieving, in a timely manner, the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) by 2015.
Since 2001 the PRSP has had two progress reports. These were published in 2004 and 2008. In 2008 a second PRSP was prepared. And, in July 2011, the authorities submitted to the National Assembly the third and latest PRSP covering the period 2011-2015. (This document includes a review of key developments since the first PRSP of 2001.)
As the title of the document indicates, poverty reduction/alleviation is the main developmental goal. This is strategized around a seven-pillared approach consisting of 1) sound economic policies; 2) sustainable development; 3) good governance; 4) improved physical infrastructure; 5) human resource development; 6) improved social services and social safety nets; and 7) special interventions to aid vulnerable populations.
The PRSP also contains a Policy and Performance Matrix for 2011-2015. This specifies the policy areas along with the objectives; strategies and measures; required actions, and monitoring indicators.
LCDS
In 2008, the LCDS came on stream. Here the government committed to protect Guyana’s standing forests and biodiversity in exchange for external compensation. As readers are aware, this has been adumbrated under 1) the United Nations reduced emissions from deforestation and degradation arrangements (REDD and REDD+) and 2) the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Government of Norway. The LCDS not only specifies a long-term path of low carbon-led growth for Guyana, but also identifies key priority projects for the medium to long-term.
GNCS
The GNCS 2006 explicitly locates itself in a rapidly globalizing world, which did not exist to the same extent at the time of the NDS (late 1990s). It acknowledges both the challenges and opportunities globalization offers and strategizes that improved competitiveness and economic diversification are the way to go. These objectives, it argues, require “long-term strategic analysis and planning coupled with more effective and vigorous entrepreneurship.” The six action areas identified in the GNCS are: call centres, aquaculture, financing, energy and infrastructure, non-traditional agriculture, and creating brain gain.
PPP/C Manifesto
The manifestos of competing political parties in national elections constitute legitimate indicators of a country’s national investment strategy, particularly for those party/parties that form the government. I readily concede that these documents carry the monumental advantage of popular endorsement. In an environment like Guyana’s, however, I think it would be legitimate to treat the manifestos of all political parties in the National Assembly (whether ruling or not) as contributing to the pool of indicators that should guide the country’s public investment strategy.
Sector plans
Importantly also, the resource documents that focus on a national investment strategy should be complemented with those that focus on 1) key sectors and ministries ( for example, health, education, energy, ICT, natural resources, agriculture and so on ); as well as 2) strategic development documents of the major state-owned enterprises, like GuySuCo and GPL.
It goes without saying that at the end of the day, in order to be properly executed the economy-wide public investment strategy and the accompanying sector plans are expected to be finally concretized in the government’s annual national Budgets and Estimates.
Conclusion
We may also confidently conclude from the above coverage of the source documents that Guyana does not lack either indicators or guidance to inform us on an appropriate public investment strategy. This is true even though it lacks a specific public agency (Planning Unit) tasked with: 1) producing a holistic, economy-wide public investment strategy and 2) informing the public about this in a systematic (and hopefully interactive and participatory) manner.
Next week, after a few further observations on Guyana’s public investment strategy, I shall begin addressing the other three sequential phases of the management of that strategy.
