Dear Editor,
Many people seem to believe that this oil discovery is going to make Guyanese rich in their lifetime without understanding that it will take decades before the flow of oil money translates into development for Guyanese. Yes, we may get infrastructural development in the short term but you need to attract FDI (Foreign Direct Investment) to propel your economy as they bring in skilled labour, capital and technology into Guyana creating thousands of jobs. Yes, they take a cut for doing this in the form of profits, dividends, etc. but the benefit of the number of jobs created far outweighs their profits. If they are profitable then they would want to expand capacity in Guyana leading to more people being employed.
With the current political climate in Guyana what I expect happening within the next 10 years is for Guyana’s GDP to grow due to the oil discovery but for the vast majority of people to remain in poverty.
Let us not forget that with the “downsizing” of the sugar industry thousands of people will be pushed into poverty yet the current government has not created thousands of job opportunities to counter this effect.
And, you asking them to prepare for an oil boom?
The PPP/C managed to grow Guyana’s economy from about US$300m to over US$3000m in 23 years and still managed to subsidise sugar. And, you telling me with an expected oil boom the current APNU+AFC regime of President David Granger cannot afford to subsidize sugar?
Yours faithfully
Sean Ori
