2009 and the Next Decade

Jan 04, 2009 Peeping Tom

Get Involved – We Can Achieve

Peter R. Ramsaroop, MBA
Chairman, Vision Guyana

INTRODUCTION:

Guyanese everywhere, approximately 1.5 million people, must join together from Berbice to London, Georgetown to New York, Essequibo to Toronto, Lethem to Miami and the Corentyne to Washington to take our country back, to help direct the path of a failed government whose management of our country after sixteen years has failed.

The average Guyanese has not been able to see themselves developed from the $30,000 salary, riding minibuses to and from work, or owning their own homes on land that is not flooded every time it rains.

If only we all can join together to lobby our government and ultimately work on a new administration for 2011 that can bring our plans to fruition and see the welfare of all our citizens rise to a better standard of living. It is not just about GDP growth, but what we have at our pocketbook level.

Thousands are out of work or doing odd jobs to survive, this must be reversed by the implementation of new initiatives and policies. Our labour growth is on a decline while migration is on the rise.

2009 and beyond policies

1. We must rethink our economic development strategy which seems to be heavily reliant on Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) as opposed to spreading investment opportunities to the villages so that we can have a growth strategy which also includes individual Guyanese owning diverse small businesses creating local self sustainable jobs and at the same time caring for our environment.

2. Where do we go from here? The government needs to be more responsive to the emerging issues and needs of the people. Inaction is not a feasible policy action at this time. Undoubtedly, the world is in a recession which will be long and deep, according to most experts.

The Guyana economy is not intertwined with those of the major economic powers. We continue to play a very subservient role in supplying raw material needs: sugar, rice, bauxite, forestry products, gold, and diamonds.

These are of various stages of unprocessed and semi-processed exports. World market prices have plummeted for most of these due to reduction in demand. Gold and diamonds are a bit stable because people are using these minerals as hedge against loss in dollar value in liquid assets.

3. The budget this year has to be like no other; it has to articulate a survival plan in the form of an economic stimulus, the major focus of which is job creation. The government has to work with the IMF to relax some of the draconian macroeconomic targets and come up with workable plans given the circumstances.

Why can’t we invest in jobs to maintain our basic infrastructure like drainage and such like all across the country so that we have job creation all around and people can earn incomes to ride them through these tough times? Let us stop thinking of ‘pie in the sky’ activities and focus on practical real programs.

4. We have called for more than a decade now for the road to Brazil to be paved, even if other programs have to be delayed. This 300-mile road will connect Brazil and Guyana, and if additional infrastructure such as a deep-water harbour and Free Enterprise Zone are constructed, Brazilian companies could use Guyana as a trans-shipment hub to North America and CARICOM.

This would also have a tremendously positive impact on Guyana’s agricultural sector and would create the opportunity for Guyana to open its vast rural lands to expand its exports to markets Brazil has already created. It would also create a large quantity of skilled and unskilled jobs for Guyana. This is not a new idea, it was first proposed under the Guyana 21 Plan.

5. Furthermore, as Guyana’s economic activity grows over the years and new villages are formed, other financial opportunities will naturally become available.

a. Immediate jobs created by this project would include construction jobs needed for the construction of the highways and transportation job for drivers of large 24-wheeler trucks.

Those trucks which would be coming with goods for shipment out of our harbours or economic free zones – another aspect that must also be part of this initiative – will then go back filled with our own products to sell to the rest of the continent. Our farmers will finally have consistency in a market for their products.

b. Under this plan, customs and immigration jobs would also be created to manage border traffic and to collect appropriate fees from vehicles. Border management jobs would be created since we must open up the country, thereby necessitating the strategic management of Guyana’s borders against drug trafficking and smuggling.

c. Guyanese could become owners of transportation companies instead of just driving minibuses. Computer related jobs would serve as the backbone of a sophisticated, well-run freight hauling and logistics management industry.

There would also be a need for hospitality management and service-related jobs associated with increased economic activity along the roads such as gas stations, hotels, motels, restaurants, entertainment, etc.

d. New villages would spring up along the highway, which will create new community jobs to support agricultural and tourism opportunities.

A sustained market in tourism and eco-tourism would develop quickly and produce jobs since Guyana would be open and find it easier to attract international tourists to appreciate Guyana’s landmarks and biodiversity.

6. We have called before and again for 2009, for a complete overhaul of the tax system. We are over taxed. The VAT in Trinidad is at 15% but one only pays 25% income tax after an annual US$10,000 deduction. Here we pay 16% but with 33 1/3 % after only a US$2,100 annual deduction.

There are many other deductions also allowed in Trinidad which bring one’s annual tax paid lower. We pay 200% duty on new vehicles. There is a major disparity with the amount government collects versus what they spend on us the citizens.

7. Land for Youth. This was an initiative first proposed by Mr. Hamley Case at the start of this decade. We strongly believe that empowering youth with land to create new economic zones will curb the unemployment rate in Guyana. Providing soft loans to get them going can see young people become innovators. This will shape a new economic ownership that can cut across all segments in our society.

8. The Summit of Americas that will be held in Trinidad this April has on its agenda from Civil Society all over the Americas, a draft declaration to be signed that is titled “Securing Our Citizens’ Future by promoting human prosperity, energy security and environmental sustainability”.

President Elect Obama and our President among others are expected to sign this declaration that was produced from our civil societies around the Americas. We want these initiatives to begin implementation now.

We must concentrate on solving our energy issues. In the meantime, we propose in addition to the Brazil connection that we forge a closer relationship with Trinidad, whose cost for energy is much lower than Guyana.

We can create joint partnership in the manufacturing sector, where we provide the raw materials and in return, products are returned to Guyana at cost. We will present a prototype project this year.

9. Strengthening good governance is also a part of this declaration. We are surely lacking this, as demonstrated by our government’s decision to manipulate local elections by allowing only for leadership positions to be contested versus allowing the people to make complete choices of local governance. We will expose our lack of good governance at the conference and lobby for the commitment by our government.

CONCLUSION:

I have attempted to list some of the main initiatives that will begin the arduous work of building our nation towards economic prosperity for us. We have detailed plans that outline each of these initiatives and will lobby our current government to get on the ball to implement an economic plan with measurable results.

We hope that you will become involved in helping us build these plans and to empower civil society to take the lead in managing our country and putting in place better governance in 2011 that can see the true opportunities of our great land finally come to fruition. We believe in the dream, we believe we can achieve the results needed to change our personal economics; we believe we are the land of many peoples but with one destiny.

Keep your party cards, but join us in our quest for a Guyanese Everywhere Coalition to build our nation together. Let us focus on the G, let’s focus on Guyana.
Until next time “Roop”.