MINISTER of Finance Dr. Ashni Singh announced that the Government of Guyana will be launching Guyana’s 2011 Millennium Development Goals (MDG) Progress Report today, exactly eleven years after the signing of the Millennium Declaration, under which the Goals were agreed to by the international community.
Minister Singh indicated that the report will take stock of the country’s progress on development, with specific reference to the MDGs.
The event, under the theme ‘Guyana: Keeping Our Promise (Meeting the Millennium Development Goals by 2015)’, will take place today from 9:00 hrs to 11:00 hrs at the Guyana International Conference Centre in Liliendaal with participation from a wide cross-section of Governmental and non-Governmental representatives.
The Finance Minister also disclosed that, overall, the Report offers a positive outlook on the country’s performance and prospects with respect to the Millennium Development Goals. It highlights the many areas where progress has been made and successes achieved. The Report also identifies key priority areas for sustaining progress, and accelerating efforts where necessary to meet the Millennium Development Goals by 2015.
The Report is organized in several sections, and contains an executive summary, eight chapters which offer a comprehensive review of the country’s performance and priorities for each goal, a short discussion on the cross-cutting issues that impact upon Guyana’s attainment of the goals and a ‘status at a glance’ section which tracks and assesses the likelihood of Guyana meeting the goals by 2015.
Head of the Presidential Secretariat, Dr. Roger Luncheon, on Tuesday, alluded to the fact that Guyana has managed to get its poverty rate down to about 36 percent.
Speaking at his post-Cabinet press briefing at the Office of the President, Dr. Luncheon said, “…our estimation from the studies shows that 32 or 36 percent of the population is still labelled to be poor.”
Dr. Luncheon said the poverty report “from where I pulled this figure is from the most recent survey that was done I think in 2006.”
He noted that poverty is greater in the hinterland and in coastal riverine areas and least in coastal urban areas.
Dr. Luncheon said that the first report since the celebrated Millennium Conference of the UN in 2000 was tabled in 2007. “This second report (2011) chronicles the achievements made by Guyana in those eight areas since 2007,” he said.
“The latest report provides the most up-to-date information on Guyana’s handling and achievements under the eight MDGs. Noteworthy is the correlation between the performances of the Guyana economy, the successes of the implementation of its social policies through the Jagdeo administration, and the actual achievements under the MDGs,” he said.
According to Dr. Luncheon, Guyana has already achieved the primary education goal, the food security, basic nutrition goal, the water sanitation goal, and the economic sustainability goal.
He said, “Many of this could be inferred by the proper reading of the mid-year report that shows the linkages between economic successes and policy implementation being evolved into the achievement of the MDGs.
“Noteworthy, the other remaining goals that are expected to be met by the year 2015, Guyana is poised to achieve those goals by that deadline,” the HPS said.
A PROUD ECONOMIC GROWTH
Guyana’s continuing economic growth is certainly a matter for resounding applause. And it was in that mood that President Bharrat Jagdeo on Friday last proudly declared that this nation’s economic progress could be a source of “envy anywhere in the world…”.
The growth rate definitely compares most favourably with the current trend among member states of the Caribbean Community and is perhaps unique in the pattern of progress within recent years, despite bewildering factors, regionally and internationally.
Even in normal times, given the nature of competitive party politics, it would be too much to expect the political opposition having something positive to say about Guyana’s steady path of social and economic advancement. But certainly not with a new general election a few months away.
Nevertheless, Guyanese of all walks of life, and irrespective of political affiliations, could take comfort in the latest official disclosure of data that the country registered an almost six percent economic growth for the first half of this year.
As told by President Jagdeo himself at Friday’s press conference: “I am extremely pleased with the Mid-Year Report on the economy. It is a great achievement for a country to keep a high level of growth in light of the global turmoil.
“Over the past six or seven years”, he said, “our country has been on a significantly elevated growth trajectory; and for the first half of this year we have had a 5.9 percent growth which is an enviable figure anywhere in the world…”
The official expectation, based on current data and projections, is that Guyana should record an overall economic growth in 2011 of 5.1 percent. Such an achievement could only generate more favourable responses from the international financial institutions in their own independent assessments of what the government, private sector and people in general of Guyana are continuing to achieve —against the odds.
At a time of recurring disheartening news, for various reasons, among both developed and undeveloped, rich and poor nations of the global community, the released information on economic growth for the first half of the year, can only inspire Guyanese to achieve further progress - beyond 2011.
Excerpts from the Guyana Chronicle
Minister Singh indicated that the report will take stock of the country’s progress on development, with specific reference to the MDGs.
The event, under the theme ‘Guyana: Keeping Our Promise (Meeting the Millennium Development Goals by 2015)’, will take place today from 9:00 hrs to 11:00 hrs at the Guyana International Conference Centre in Liliendaal with participation from a wide cross-section of Governmental and non-Governmental representatives.
The Finance Minister also disclosed that, overall, the Report offers a positive outlook on the country’s performance and prospects with respect to the Millennium Development Goals. It highlights the many areas where progress has been made and successes achieved. The Report also identifies key priority areas for sustaining progress, and accelerating efforts where necessary to meet the Millennium Development Goals by 2015.
The Report is organized in several sections, and contains an executive summary, eight chapters which offer a comprehensive review of the country’s performance and priorities for each goal, a short discussion on the cross-cutting issues that impact upon Guyana’s attainment of the goals and a ‘status at a glance’ section which tracks and assesses the likelihood of Guyana meeting the goals by 2015.
Head of the Presidential Secretariat, Dr. Roger Luncheon, on Tuesday, alluded to the fact that Guyana has managed to get its poverty rate down to about 36 percent.
Speaking at his post-Cabinet press briefing at the Office of the President, Dr. Luncheon said, “…our estimation from the studies shows that 32 or 36 percent of the population is still labelled to be poor.”
Dr. Luncheon said the poverty report “from where I pulled this figure is from the most recent survey that was done I think in 2006.”
He noted that poverty is greater in the hinterland and in coastal riverine areas and least in coastal urban areas.
Dr. Luncheon said that the first report since the celebrated Millennium Conference of the UN in 2000 was tabled in 2007. “This second report (2011) chronicles the achievements made by Guyana in those eight areas since 2007,” he said.
“The latest report provides the most up-to-date information on Guyana’s handling and achievements under the eight MDGs. Noteworthy is the correlation between the performances of the Guyana economy, the successes of the implementation of its social policies through the Jagdeo administration, and the actual achievements under the MDGs,” he said.
According to Dr. Luncheon, Guyana has already achieved the primary education goal, the food security, basic nutrition goal, the water sanitation goal, and the economic sustainability goal.
He said, “Many of this could be inferred by the proper reading of the mid-year report that shows the linkages between economic successes and policy implementation being evolved into the achievement of the MDGs.
“Noteworthy, the other remaining goals that are expected to be met by the year 2015, Guyana is poised to achieve those goals by that deadline,” the HPS said.
A PROUD ECONOMIC GROWTH
Guyana’s continuing economic growth is certainly a matter for resounding applause. And it was in that mood that President Bharrat Jagdeo on Friday last proudly declared that this nation’s economic progress could be a source of “envy anywhere in the world…”.
The growth rate definitely compares most favourably with the current trend among member states of the Caribbean Community and is perhaps unique in the pattern of progress within recent years, despite bewildering factors, regionally and internationally.
Even in normal times, given the nature of competitive party politics, it would be too much to expect the political opposition having something positive to say about Guyana’s steady path of social and economic advancement. But certainly not with a new general election a few months away.
Nevertheless, Guyanese of all walks of life, and irrespective of political affiliations, could take comfort in the latest official disclosure of data that the country registered an almost six percent economic growth for the first half of this year.
As told by President Jagdeo himself at Friday’s press conference: “I am extremely pleased with the Mid-Year Report on the economy. It is a great achievement for a country to keep a high level of growth in light of the global turmoil.
“Over the past six or seven years”, he said, “our country has been on a significantly elevated growth trajectory; and for the first half of this year we have had a 5.9 percent growth which is an enviable figure anywhere in the world…”
The official expectation, based on current data and projections, is that Guyana should record an overall economic growth in 2011 of 5.1 percent. Such an achievement could only generate more favourable responses from the international financial institutions in their own independent assessments of what the government, private sector and people in general of Guyana are continuing to achieve —against the odds.
At a time of recurring disheartening news, for various reasons, among both developed and undeveloped, rich and poor nations of the global community, the released information on economic growth for the first half of the year, can only inspire Guyanese to achieve further progress - beyond 2011.
Excerpts from the Guyana Chronicle
