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Oil money can also be invested in agriculture
DEAR EDITOR,
Since oil was discovered offshore Guyana it seems that Guyanese are expecting an Oil Boom. Let’s face reality. The oil will only benefit a few (those who are well connected) and may not trickle down to the poor and severely poor who are in desperate need on a day-to-day basis.
I sincerely doubt that the ordinary Guyanese will ever see any of this oil money, as Guyana is not about to avoid the resource curse but is headed for it.
Some, in Guyana, became very wealthy without oil, so imagine with oil how much more wealthy the well-connected will become?
The reason for my pessimism is that I look at the world and see the rich getting richer as the poor get poorer and understand that Guyana is headed in the same direction, unless it does something fundamentally different.
Unless the government of the day has in place a development plan that will benefit the poor, I just do not see how the oil money will benefit the vast majority of Guyanese. Such a development plan will need to target unemployment by job creation. Investment needs to be made in agriculture (as it tends to absorb more people, as people always need food and many Guyanese are skilled in farming), then value added products.
Yours Faithfully
Sean Ori
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