GUYANA is definitely on an accelerated growth track in relation to its CARICOM sisters, in spite of political and economic challenges. But President Ramotar is confident the growth figures could have been higher with cooperation from the political opposition. President Donald Ramotar last evening told residents at a public meeting at Ruimzeight, West Coast Demerara, Region 3, that the Opposition has fought development at various stages over the past three years, in the National Assembly.
“Now we are regarded as the fastest growing economy in the whole Caribbean; but the Opposition continues to make efforts to stop the country from going forward…they attempted to cut $89 billion from the budget. That $89 billion spent in the economy would have allowed us to grow much faster…they never told us to do more for the people, instead they concentrated heavily on cutting the budget,” he said.
The budgets for 2012, 2013 and 2014 were all cut by the Opposition, and according to the President, the political Opposition’s primary concern is gaining political power come May 11, and not uniting or developing Guyana as it is professing during the ongoing elections’ campaign.
The President said when the People’s Progressive Party left government in 1964, Guyana’s standard of living was high, but when the People’s National Congress (PNC) left in 1992, a team from the Commonwealth said that Guyana and Haiti were the poorest countries in the Western Hemisphere.
“They destroyed our country and made it the poorest country…they want to prevent us from moving our country forward. For them, development is not important, if it happens, it happens, political power is more important. …These are the same people who now come to ask you to put them back in government,” he told the large gathering.
The President said that the Opposition now wants Guyanese to forget the past, but Guyana is still trying to rebuild from that state when the country “was digging a hole to fill a hole,” referring to the repayment of the debt burden, which he noted was 925 per cent bigger than the country’s economy, according to then Finance Minister Carl Greenidge.
“Our foreign debt was 950 per cent of our foreign earnings, and to pay back that debt took 153 per cent of our revenues…we were borrowing to repay our debt,” he said, adding that under the PPP/C, the country’s debt has been reduced to four percent of the country’s revenues.
Guyanese today are now living a better quality of life, the Head of State noted, adding that significant sums have been invested by Government on fighting poverty and creating better opportunities through education and social services.
“If you want to see the difference, look at our budgets, PNC spent more money on foreign affairs than on health, housing, water and agriculture put together. We are now spending most of the budget on the social sector, more than 30 per cent alone on the social sector, because we believe that the people are most important.”
Speaking about plans for Region 3, the President said these include a new highway and a major Information, Communication and Technology investment at Tuschen, likely to create some 900 jobs.
Addressing concerns close to the residents of this rice farming community, the President said that Government is working to put price support measures in place and gain access to more markets in places such as Panama and Ghana, so that farmers could have better prices for their produce. He spoke of efforts to modernise the rice sector and embark on value-added products. He told the gathering of an example in Essequibo, Region 2, where waste products from rice are being converted to electricity and this reduces the cost of production by about 70 per cent, “and with these new technologies, you create new possibilities and nothing goes to waste.”
But while rice and sugar remain major contributors to the economy, agriculture is being diversified and the President spoke of the immense potential of products such as coconuts. (GINA)