Guyana Oil Bonanza: Where do we go from here?

Aug 17, 2020 Letters

DEAR EDITOR,
The Editorial “Let Payara be test case and precedent” (KN, 15th August 2020) highlights that Guyana is at a crossroads with regards to recently becoming an oil producing nation.
Where do we go from here?
Do we abandon agriculture and plough all our resources into oil ventures? Or, do we use the oil monies to create sustainable industries in the traditional sectors as the PPP/C Government of President Irfaan Ali seems to want to do?
Lessons can be learnt from our neighbour Venezuela. With the largest proven oil reserves in the world Venezuela finds it hard to feed its population.
Therefore, Guyana should not turn its nose up on agriculture as oil prices can and do fluctuate as we have seen this year to the detriment of oil producing nations.
We should keep agriculture but mechanized it.We should also be looking to diversify our economy AWAY from oil as the oil reserves will not last forever. We should be looking at manufacturing in a big way but always have food security as our first priority.
Manufacturing in a big way will require cheap labour and cheap energy resources.
Therefore, our second priority should be to find a way to drive down the cost of electricity and to create a stable electricity supply.Without cheap energy resources Guyana will struggle to be competitive in manufacturing.
Yours Faithfully,
Sean Ori

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