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In the face of multibillion-dollar oil wealth… Guyana must improve its productivity, otherwise it will not transform – Ramson
Attorney-at-Law Charles Ramson delivering his presentation last evening
If the Government of Guyana fails to raise the country’s average level of productivity significantly, then the nation would not be able to experience “transformational” growth. This is regardless of the billions of dollars in oil money to come its way in the future.
Making this salient point last evening at Moray House was Attorney-at-Law and Oil and Gas Academic, Charles Ramson. He was one of the three presenters on the topic, “Oil and the Economy: Themes and Concerns.”
At the well attended event, Ramson articulated that there are only two proven methods to increase productivity. He opined that if pursued aggressively, it will lead to Guyana’s transformational development. He cited these methods to be urbanisation and industrialisation.
Speaking to the former, Ramson said that this involves the mass movement of people to a concentrated urban area – basically, people living in cities. Ramson proffered that there is no country in the world that could climb to prosperity – at least, as defined in terms of being a ‘high-income society’ – unless it is urbanised.
On this premise, Ramson made reference to the three richest countries in the world in terms of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita: Qatar, Luxemburg and Singapore. Ramson noted that the percentages of urbanized population for the countries are 99 percent, 90 percent and 100 percent respectively.
The lawyer then referenced the poorest countries in Africa: Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Burundi. The urbanization rates for these countries are 40 percent, 43 percent and 12 percent respectively.
Ramson then noted that the governments of these African nations made the mistake of failing to augment their urbanization rates. Based on their GDP figures, the lawyer concluded that the African states are now suffering the consequences of their actions.
Furthermore, Ramson said that Qatar, Luxemburg and Singapore are able to climb to the top of the leader board because of their unwavering efforts in the area of industrialisation.
He added that three of the world’s richest countries are highly industrialised or offer highly specialised skills. On this note, Ramson said that Guyana needs to increase its efforts at industrialization. He then referenced the fact that Dubai created a free zone and shipping port. He said the country today, benefits immensely from those two projects.
Ramson also noted that Dubai has the largest free zone in the world and it accounts for US$80 billion of non-oil foreign trade. He emphasised that, “Guyana needs to do something like this or even bigger and better than this.”
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