Ever since three very famous Harvard economists – D. Rodrik, R. Hausmann and A. Velasco – came up with a tool for diagnosing key binding constraints restricting growth and development, there has been no shortage of “growth diagnostic” studies on Guyana. From my point of view, I always thought that these studies are illustrating prima facie constraints instead of the fundamental binding ones.
I have concluded from my reading of history that the geographical and ecological features of Guyana’s coastal plain – on which about 90% of the population lives – present the major constraint on economic development. The coastal plain in its natural state would be a swamp. It is now well known that the once swampy region was drained by the Dutch from around the middle of the 1700s for taking advantage of its relatively fertile soil.
