Dear Editor,
As we prepare for General and Regional Elections next week, there are some concerns about whether there will be peace and stability in the country thereafter; I wish to share five very important points for consideration by our citizens, as to why this elections should be peaceful, and an atmosphere of stability should be maintained after March 2nd.
Firstly, in 2012 I started sharing my thoughts on Guyana’s potential for becoming the ‘Singapore of South America’. At that time, I did not know that the country had all of the oil resources now being discovered. However, let’s fast forward, with Guyana becoming an oil producing country, it is well positioned now to become the ‘Singapore of South America’, and to move from being a ‘Third’ world country, to a ‘First’ world country. A few years ago, Guyana was considered as one of the Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) and perhaps the second poorest country in the Hemisphere, just above Haiti. Today, it is one of the 25 largest oil reserve-holders in the world. The success rate of exploration has been unprecedented – above 80%. This has placed Guyana above Sudan and India, with the estimated gross recoverable resources of over five billion barrels of oil.
What does this mean for the ordinary citizens of Guyana? According to a World Bank document, the estimated export revenues from initial projects in the Oil and Gas industry, could be around US$72.8 billion and the revenue which the government will receive, could be around US$45.4 billion during the life these initial projects. This means that the Guyana Government and people of Guyana, could be receiving an average of US$2.1 billion every year, during this period.
What does this mean for the citizens of Guyana? Let’s look at it this way, the total Government revenues for the country in 2017, was US$0.9 billion; that could now be increased with oil revenues, to US$2.1 billion; this means that the national budget will be more than doubled from oil revenues alone. As a diversified economy with commodities such as gold, rice, sugar, bauxite, seafoods and timber, among other areas, the country/government’s revenues will increase significantly. Therefore the Government (this is, any government), will have much, much more money for building schools; improving health care (for example hospitals, clinics); for transportation; addressing the crime situation; creating more jobs; ensuring cheaper and cleaner electricity; among other things. Guyana’s economic attractiveness -the second reason why we should have peace and stability after March 2 Elections, is our economic attractiveness. Now that Guyana is among the 25 largest oil reserve-holders in the world; investors will come to our shores. Note, I did not say may come, they will come to our shores. A report out of the US Embassy earlier this week states that 100 businesses of various sizes and sectors from the US alone, are interested in doing business or exploring business opportunities in Guyana.
There are also interests from businesses in the EU, UK, Canada, China, Brazil, Jamaica, Trinidad, Barbados and numerous others. What does this mean for the ordinary Guyanese? It means that if as a country we can get this right and create a business and investment environment that is fair, just, credible and stable; Guyana can become the ‘Singapore of South America’. This means more jobs for our citizens, their children and grandchildren too.
The third reason why Elections should be peaceful, is the geopolitical positioning of Guyana. It is the only English-speaking country on the South American mainland. Positioned next to Brazil, the 9th largest economy in the world and it is in close proximity to North America a huge trading region, etc.
Additionally, another big benefit for Guyana, as well as an attraction for investors, is that it is not a landlocked country; it is in close proximity to the Atlantic Ocean.
The fourth reason why there should be peace and stability after March 2, is that the Guyanese people need to give themselves more credit for building stronger institutions. Two institutions I would like to mention are; the Judiciary and the Media. The Judiciary must be commended for what can be considered and an emerging independent judiciary. This is fundamental to upholding the rule of law and must be encouraged. Investors can largely expect our judiciary to be predictable and adhere to high international, regional and national legal norms and practices.
Is the emergence of an independent judiciary as a result of several interventions over the years? Such as the Modernisation of the Justice Administra-tion System (MAJS) programme, that was funded by the IDB, or the justice improvements projects, funded by the Canadian Government? Whatever the case, what we do know, is that there are obvious indications of an emerging independent judiciary, and this should be sustained.
The level of freedom of expression and the role of the Media in Guyana is also commendable. The World Bank, World-wide Governance Indicators in one of the six indicators on perceptions of Governance; under the indicator, ‘Voice and Accountability’, places Guyana, as recent as 2018, at over 50 percent; this is the highest score in the six areas – Voice and Accountability, Political Stability and Absence of Violence/Terrorism, Govern-ment Effectiveness, Regulatory Quality, Rule of Law, Control of Corruption.
This says a lot about the role the media plays in the area of ‘Voice and Account-ability’. I would like to particularly make mention of the ‘Letters’ segments in the newspapers, which provide a space for the expression of the opinions of citizens.
The fifth reason is the quality of the diversity of our people, culture and country. There is a uniqueness and richness in our diversity which as citizens we need to place a much, much higher value on. Very often our leaders exploit that diversity; however, we need to create and capture more value (economic and otherwise) from our diversity.
While there are numerous bad examples of resource-rich developing countries in terms of the ‘resource curse’, there are also good examples that we can learn from; these include Botswana and Chile, as developing countries. Other good examples of countries that used their resources for the development of their country are Canada, Norway and Australia. These countries have made significant progress in reducing overall poverty; improving governance and sustaining good governance; investing and improving public and private sector institutions; investing in skills and technology; developing efficient and transparent revenue collection and management systems and developing sound economic and fiscal management policies.
Today, the ordinary citizen in Guyana and their families, are in a much better position to achieve the ‘Guyanese Dream’. Let’s create more value from our country.
Finally, Warren Buffet said, ‘it takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently’. My appeal is, that everything is in place for each and every Guyanese to achieve the ‘Guyanese Dream’, May we focus on the bigger picture!
Yours faithfully,
Audreyanna Thomas
