Making his presentation on budget 2024, Leader of the Opposition, Aubrey Norton yesterday unveiled a People-Centred Development Strategy (PCDS) which he said that an APNU administration will focus on if elected.
Norton believes that the PPP/C government is distributing Guyana’s resources in an “unfair way”, that is, to only a certain set of people in the country, as he called the 2024 budget one of “deceit” which sets out to fool the people of Guyana and make the average Guyanese believe that there is something in it for them, “there is nothing.”
According to him, while budget 2024 highlights several projects, the reality is that the government cannot complete those projects. Pointing to the Skeldon sugar and fibre optic cable projects, Norton said that if one is to judge the PPP/C on those projects then the gas-to-energy project is destined for failure.
“You are deceiving yourselves… People are worse off under this PPP/C administration, this budget deceives, government has no plan for this nation.”
He then stated that Guyana’s problem is no longer a shortage of financial resources but rather it is who can best allocate those resources to ensure that all Guyanese benefit to improve their lives.
Making a plea to the Guyanese people, Norton said, “We in the Opposition offer ourselves to the people of Guyana as the ones who can do it with our People-Centered Development Strategy (PCDS) and vision that put the interest of our people first.”
Contending that the budget does not serve the people of Guyana and cannot reduce the cost of living and end poverty since it is designed for those who have more, Norton stressed “It is, for this reason, there is the need for our People-Centred Development Strategy.”
Zeroing in on the PCDS, he stated that it would put people first by utilizing the resources of Guyana to achieve the ultimate goal of providing a high quality of life to Guyanese through the direct and indirect transfer of resources, to educate them, support their mobilization of resources to work, and for investments with the aim of alleviating and ultimately eradicating poverty while simultaneously resulting in the sustainable development of all communities and sectors of the Guyanese society as well as the promotion of good governance and the creation of a just and prosperous society.
“The PCDS will ensure that the needs of the people, such as health care, housing, water, electricity, education, transportation, and other social services are of a high quality and guaranteed. It is only with such an approach in which we provide for those who have too little that we can be able to say we are progressing.”
According to him, the concern that his presentation expresses is the situation of the public servants who he said endured all sorts of inconveniences and hardships from inadequate wages, high prices, blackouts, water shortages, poor health services, and transport fatigue to keep the government functioning. “These should not be the hallmarks of the fastest-growing economy in the world, unfortunately, they are. Amidst the daily stresses of life, their patriotism and commitment to work continues to be abused by the government.”
Anti-middle class
He said the PPP/C has shown with this budget that they are anti-middle class and the working poor, stressing that 6.5% to public servants is unacceptable and that the income tax threshold should be raised to $150,000.
“That should be easy to do in this oil economy for some reason the government seems to not want to improve the life of the ordinary people”, as according to him “the wealth from oil is not reaching the people.”
He then stated that the country’s wealth must be used to promote unity and not divisiveness.
According to Norton, less than five years ago, it took 20 of the 29 industries to generate 90% of Guyana’s GDP, and now takes eight industries. “This means that 20 of our 29 public, private sector, or private-sector oriented industries now account for 10% of the national pie. It is necessary that we work assiduously to ensure the non-oil sector is expanded to reduce the dependence on oil and ensure we develop a resilient and diversified economy that could protect and serve the interest of future generations.”
Concentration
He opined that this concentration of income among a small number of industries has implications for how the resources of the country are being distributed among its industries and people. “This is a concern that is not obvious to us in this budget as reflected in the massive spending on infrastructure with little regard for our people as will be shown later. Mr. Speaker, this budget fails to charter a course for a wider array of industries to contribute to our national income. Our People Centred Development Strategy will undertake that task since we are sanguine that a wider array of industries can contribute far more resources to allocate to the people’s development.”
He said, that industries such as other crops, construction, gold, real estate, administrative services, financial services, and the distributive trade are among the top 8 contributors to the country’s GDP, and though currently so placed, they have also changed positions. “Other Crops is now in second place while gold, which previously occupied second place, now sits in seventh place, rice manufacturing, which ranked 15th in 2019 ranked 19th in 2023, education which ranked 12th in 2019 ranked 15th in 2023, the redistribution in the ranking of many of our industries shows that some industries that were once significant players in our economy no longer hold that profile. There might be reasons other than the influences of oil and gas for the change in ranking, but it is clear that the affected industries must think of what the changes mean to their competitiveness and their future in this economy.”
He then argued that the budget has no measures to address this changed situation.
“More importantly, education which fell from 12th in 2019 to 15th in 2023 is a clear indication that human resource development is not given the focus it deserves.” As such, he said, that their People-Centred Development Strategy will significantly improve the education sector because “we believe that the development of human capital is critical to the success of any country’s development.”
Further, Norton said that for a country that relies heavily on foreign trade, “we must be concerned as to what the changes in our economy mean for the acquisition and distribution of foreign currency. The new concentration of our economy reveals that two industries, oil and gold, generated 94% of our foreign earnings in 2023.”
He said that according to existing data one can envisage oil exceeding the 90% share of foreign earnings that it was responsible for in 2023 in the not-too-distant future. “While we bask as a country in the financial glow of the oil industry, one must wonder what role the current policy on the management and use of foreign generated earnings might be playing in determining access to foreign currency for the business community and the wider society. This is another issue not addressed in this Budget. We believe it is important and incumbent on the government to manage this situation properly so that our local private sector can access foreign exchange to grow their businesses.”
He then added, that “shortage of foreign currency should not abound in a country where export revenues have grown by over 700% in less than four years and its trade balance has shifted from a deficit in 2019 to a surplus of over US$6.5b in 2023.”
According to him, “By blindly supporting the investment priorities of the government, private sector entities might be serving as the architect of their own inability to access foreign currency to conduct their business. The government’s insistence that cement, sand, and stone must dominate the consumption pattern of the country ought to cause consternation among Guyanese. Our foreign exchange management must facilitate the development of the local private sector in the non-infrastructure sector.”
Meanwhile, further making the case for an APNU+AFC government, Norton said, that the PCDS will provide homes on a rent-to-own basis and “we will replicate the successes the PNC had when it produced houses in South Ruimveldt and other areas without putting the house owners at risk of losing those houses.”
