‘Balance rapid development with measures to ease hardships of ordinary citizens’

Sep 02, 2024 News

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– T&T ambassador urges Guyana

Kaieteur News – The High Commissioner of Trinidad and Tobago (T&T) to Guyana Conrad Enill has highlighted the critical need for Guyana to balance its rapid economic development with measures to mitigate the cost-of-living impact on its citizens.

In a discussion on the Energy Perspectives podcast aired on Sunday, Ambassador Enill shared perspectives from T&T’s experience as a longstanding oil producer. Oil was discovered offshore Guyana in 2015 and by December 2019 the country became an oil producing nation. Oil is currently being produced from the Stabroek Block which is estimated to hold 11.6 billion barrels of oil. The operator of the block ExxonMobil Guyana Limited (EMGL) is producing 645,000 barrels of oil per day (bpd) from three Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) vessels, the Liza Destiny, Unity and Prosperity. The company already has plans for three other vessels with a target of 1.2 million bdp by 2027.

During the episode, Ambassador Enill highlighted that while Guyana’s oil sector growth presents significant opportunities, it also poses challenges. “So, there are two issues for consideration. The first is the definition of development, and the second one is the rate of growth of your energy sector and the revenues that will be derived from it. Of course, these are two separate things,” he said.

The Ambassador explained that while energy sector revenue can potentially enhance a country’s circumstances, it requires correct policy prescriptions to ensure that benefits are equitably shared. He noted that the two crucial criteria are whether the companies involved are globally competitive and if citizens are receiving a fair return on investment. “Development in Guyana has two components to it. There is the infrastructure, and then there are the people,” the Ambassador noted.

He pointed out that the benefits of development are not always immediately felt by the population, despite visible infrastructure improvements. Ambassador Enill said, “The challenge you have is that the people, in some instances, do not feel the benefits as quickly as you see other things happening…Those are the two conflicting areas that policymakers try to get right. In some instances, they do, and in others, they don’t.”

“For example, you see a lot of infrastructure, changes to roads, schools, and so on. But you may not see directly an increase in people’s standard of living simply because what is required in the system, the country has not yet developed. So, there is significant potential for growth. There are significant opportunities if people take advantage of them. But it is only in those circumstances that you would see the development of the people, as opposed to just the development of the country,” he added.

Drawing from Trinidad and Tobago’s own development journey, Ambassador Enill highlighted a key lesson, that the rate of development can adversely affect human development if not managed carefully.

“In Trinidad, we got it wrong sometimes because, in pursuit of the country’s development, the rate of development sometimes impacts negatively on human development. In other words, as the country tries to move forward with its infrastructure program, goods and services are not keeping pace with the demand. Therefore, prices become an issue, which means the cost of living increases dramatically,” he said. Ambassador Enill warned that as infrastructure development accelerates, it can lead to increased demand for goods and services, driving up prices and exacerbating the cost of living.  “The problem with that is if you do not have a supply-side strategy to increase supplies, people on a fixed income will find the cost of living increasing, impacting them negatively,” the Ambassador noted.

As such, he urged Guyana to learn from these experiences and manage the pace of development to ensure that the benefits are distributed more equitably among its citizens. It was recently reported that within the first six months of 2024, oil production increased Guyana’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), resulting in a 49.7% growth. “So, on one hand, you have the country doing well, but you have a situation where citizens are not yet at the stage where they can participate in all that is happening because the rate of change is too great. That’s one of the challenges Guyana has to manage,” Enill concluded.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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• Ambassador Enill, Conrad Enill, the Liza Destiny, Unity and Prosperity, vessels

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