Guyana to secure further advice on SWF

Oct 15, 2017 News

Critical framework still at draft stage
The all so important policy to guide the establishment of Guyana’s first Sovereign Wealth Fund (SWF) is still at its draft stage. However, Minister of Finance, Winston Jordan, is saying that the policy, when completed will be sound.

Minister of Finance, Winston Jordan

This, he said, is because the draft is benefiting from the expert inputs of internationally respected organizations and independent brilliant minds alike.
The Minister said, “We have a draft SWF legislation that was done by the Commonwealth Secretariat. This draft has been commented on extensively by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank and others.”
This very legislation has passed its deadline to be laid in the National Assembly. This deadline was provided to the nation in the Parliament by the Minister of Natural Resources, Raphael Trotman. Jordan said that Trotman spoke out of his domain.
“Trotman can only speak on matters that are within his domain. SWF is in my domain. Albeit when it first started he was responsible for oil matters and that apparently included SWF but as he had rightly told you, he handed over the SWF in January to the Ministry of Finance,” said Jordan.
The Minister said that it is by no means a case where the policy was placed in a corner or is languishing on anyone’s desk. He said that he has been working.
“Since then (when the document was handed over to him) I have set up a team internally in the Ministry of Finance to examine the legislation and we gave it out to a number of partners including the IDB, IMF and World Bank and those three came up with extensive comments,” the Minister explained.
Jordan said that he will use the IMF annual meeting which he being held in Washington, DC, as an opportunity to further gather inputs to tighten the document. Jordan said that at that during his visit to the United States, “I am going to the Commonwealth Secretariat advisor and I believe that I will meet with the Commonwealth Secretary General on the matter.”
The SWF is very important for Guyana. Its main aim is to absorb revenue to be derived from Guyana’s oil resource. However, the APNU+AFC Government had said that it may also deposit revenues from other natural resources into that fund.
The SWF is also a mechanism to avoid the Dutch Disease which often plagues countries with oil wealth. Norway’s SWF has been lauded as one of the best and most effective models in the world.

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