A decade of development for all

Aug 11, 2019 APNU Column, Features / Columnists

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“Every generation has the responsibility to move our country closer towards the common aspirations which were ignited on May 26, 1966… Independence – the dream of the good life for us, our children and our grandchildren.
Our foreparents sacrificed so that we could have a better life than they did. The responsibility of this generation is to lay the foundation for the good life for our children and grandchildren. The next fifty years must find us engaged in realizing that vision.” (HE David Granger)

President David Granger has signaled that the forthcoming decade will be a decade of development for all Guyanese. In the four short years since being in office, the Granger-led APNU+AFC coalition has laid the foundation for the planned decade of development.
We have all heard time and again that Guyana is a land of great potential. However, successive generations have failed to maximise on that potential. We have all boasted that Guyana is the only English-speaking country on the South American continent; an English-speaking state, whose geo-strategic location, natural resources and market access position us to become a significant regional player.
Our strategic geographical location makes us a natural bridge to CARICOM and the huge South American continental market. Our resources which include gold, diamonds, bauxite, sand, stone, manganese, water, oil and timber, are the envy of many, who only possess white sand beaches. We have 15 million hectares of pristine forest, more than 200 types of fruit and vegetables, along with large expanses of arable agricultural lands. Guyana is also the signatory to numerous international trade agreements and preferential bilateral arrangements.
With a coalition administration led by President David Granger, Guyana over the next decade will position itself to take advantage of the fact that both food and water are scarce global commodities. We will move from producers of raw material to exporters of finished value-added products.
Our expected petroleum revenues will allow us the fiscal space to invest in our agricultural sector. With the agricultural transformation, Guyana will, by the end of the decade, become the food-basket of the region again. Currently, CARICOM countries import over US$4Billion annually in food, and the global need for both fresh water and food will become more acute in the next two decades. In short, Guyana’s economic prosperity is achievable because of its natural endowments, and we will capitalise on this now and in the decades ahead.
We (Guyanese) have wasted half of a century bickering over the petty and the inconsequential, while ignoring the vital and essential. We know that economic independence is a necessary precursor for the creation of a politically independent nation. We have experienced first-hand that political independence is empty unless we achieve true economic independence. However, the path to economic independence cannot be achieved by the production of primary products alone.
In an address to the nation on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of our Independence, President Granger said; “Our task today is to complete our mission by securing within the next decade, a ‘good life’ for all Guyanese. The necessity of economic transformation cannot be denied or delayed. We must act resolutely to implement the reforms that are essential to building a resilient economy.”
This charge to the nation will be heeded by the Coalition with great urgency and steadfastness during the decade of development.
In the decade of development, we will have to radically change the way we do business in order to revolutionise our economy. Primary products must be converted into value added products. Our now dormant manufacturing sector must be revived. We will be an education nation, with free education from nursery to university. Our education curriculum will be radically revamped to produce scientists, engineers and technologists; innovators and builders rather than servants and consumers of goods.
Addressing this urgent need, President Granger said “Our young people must be educated as engineers to build bridges and roads to open our vast hinterland and to develop schemes to exploit our hydro-electrical potential. There must be an opportunity for geologists to develop our bauxite, diamond, gold, manganese and quarrying resources. There must be opportunity for biologists, botanists, zoologists and agriculturists to expand food production. There must be an opportunity for young people to investigate and implement systems for the sustainable development of our country.”
In the first decade after independence, our manufacturing sector far eclipsed the one that we have today. In the seventies there were several assembly plants that produced bicycles and electronics; clay-brick factories that produced building material; a garment industry that produced shirts, jeans and lingerie; Tanneries that made shoes and leather products; an alumina plant that converted bauxite to alumina; the famed ‘Tapir’ vehicle was assembled by Guyanese engineers.
In this new decade of development, we must rekindle the spirit of innovation. We must produce furniture, doors, floors, shutter and finished wooden products from our several species of hard-wood. We must turn our gold and precious stones into fine jewellery; we must refine our sugars and look to other forms of use for our sugar cane — like ethanol and alternative forms of energy.
Old sugar estates can be retooled to support other industries like canning and packaging and old sugar lands converted to orchards and to support a fruit juice, nectar and canned fruit industry.
We must not only be content to produce rice, but turn our rice into rice cereals, flours and confectionary like rice-cakes; Agro-processing must be encouraged, taking advantage of the wide variety of cash crops produced. Plantain can easily be packaged into chips and flour, and be exported. We must take advantage of our water resources and the growing need for fresh water world-wide. We must bring on stream new industries that produce value added products, while we transform the old economy to meet the demands of an ever-changing world.
Guyana is on the right path with the APNU+AFC government. We are proud of the progress that we have made, but we know that real change is neither quick to come by or easy to establish. There is a lot more to do. Together, let’s keep moving forward.

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper)

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