Demerara-Mahaica: bellwether of regional economic recovery

Dec 03, 2017 APNU Column, Features / Columnists

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(Excerpts from an address by H.E. David Granger President of the Cooperative Republic of Guyana
at the Regional Agricultural and Commercial Exhibition (RACE) of the Demerara-Mahaica Region)
The Demerara-Mahaica Regional Agricultural and Commercial Exhibition (RACE) is long overdue.
The Regional Agricultural and Commercial Exhibition of the Demerara-Mahaica Region will bring to six, the regions which have hosted such expositions over the past year.
I look forward to RACEs being hosted in the remaining four regions – Barima-Waini, West Demerara, Cuyuni-Mazaruni and Potaro-Siparuni.
RACEs highlight the people’s potential to produce and to expose their products for purchase at home and abroad. RACEs provide markets for farmers, traders and manufacturers. I have been impressed by the energetic response and participation of households, micro-, small-, medium-scale enterprises to regional exhibitions.
RACEs emphasize the importance which regional stakeholders – Regional Democratic Councils, Neighbourhood Democratic Councils, regional chambers of commerce, the private sector and civil society organizations – can play in the economic empowerment of the regions.
RACEs provide the reason for formulating Regional Economic Action Plans (REAP), as I have called for on each occasion that I have addressed these regional expositions.
Guyana is a unitary state but government must take place at three levels – the neighbourhood (NDC) or municipality; the Region (RDC) and the central government. All three strata must work in unison.
Guyana is a unitary state that comprises ten administrative regions. Guyana’s five coastal regions have more developed economies, infrastructure and markets than their five hinterland sisters.
RACEs focus attention on the specific developmental needs of each region in order to reduce inequalities and remove obstacles to growth. More developed regions must support the less developed regions if the asymmetries are to be reduced.
Demerara-Mahaica is the smallest region, covering an area of 1,843 km2 – about the size of the Comoros – but it is strongest region and home to 40 per cent of the country’s population. It must support the development of the other regions through its banking, communication, distribution, exports, investment services and markets.
Demerara-Mahaica’s infrastructure – with its developed road networks and communication facilities – is superior to all other regions. The region’s road networks are linked to Guyana’s main seaport, Port Georgetown. The two international airports are situated within the region. The Region possesses a strong and established industrial base with industrial estates at Coldingen, Ruimveldt and at Eccles.
The Region, through its industrial sites, must lead the next wave agro-processing. It must become a central market and export hub for agro-processing and other manufactured goods.
The Region, despite these assets, remains a food-bowl, producing in 2016:
– 28,387 metric tonnes of rice, representing 5.3% of total national production;
– 19,341 tonnes of sugar, representing 11% of national production;
– 35,896 tonnes of fish and shrimp, representing 86% of national production;
– 19,297,681 kg of chicken, representing 60% of national production;
– 13,559,996 eggs, representing 70% of national production
– 103,985 kg of pork, representing 40% of national production;
– 3.069 kg of mutton, representing 5% of national production and
– 4.8 million coconuts, representing 31% of national production.
Demerara-Mahaica, blessed with such economic vitality and diversity, must help to promote the economic transformation of other regions, thereby narrowing the economic gaps which exist between the coastland and the hinterland.
Demerara-Mahaica is the bellwether – it knows the way, it shows the way, it goes the way. The Region’s development, in this regard, must be aligned with Guyana’s green trajectory of development which has, at one of its central objectives, the reduction in economic disparities between the hinterland and the coastland.
Guyana is in transition to becoming a ‘green’ state which will place emphasis on the preservation of our biodiversity, the protection of our environment and the promotion of renewable energy generation.
It will accelerate increased value-added low manufacturing. Demerara-Mahaica, as Guyana’s strongest administrative region, is expected to play a pivotal role in driving this ‘green’ agenda.
Demerara-Mahaica must employ its efforts and experience in education, energy, economic services, enterprise development and environmental protection to overcome the challenges it faces and to support the development of other regions.
RACEs are becoming a mechanism to promote greater economic integration, cooperation, communication and transportation among the regions. This Region must take the lead in collaborating with other administrative regions.

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