COMMENTARY Budget 2023 advances the transformational agenda

By Dr. Leslie Ramsammy

Noone would have believed how rapidly the economic and social development trajectory would have occurred in Guyana when the people decided on March 2, 2020 that they had had enough of David Granger and his PNC-led APNU/AFC’s hapless, incompetent, clueless cabinet and government. When five months after the election, on August 2, 2020, President Irfaan Ali, Vice President Bharat Jagdeo and the PPP government took over, few people, including staunch PPP supporters, believed that the government would have been able to so quickly take control and change the direction Guyana was moving. Oil money was already flowing then, but the David Granger -led APNU/AFC (PNC) government had no vision and was more interested in their own welfare.

Fast forward to January 2023. Guyana is now the envy of the whole of CARICOM. Our little country is presently being paid attention to by the whole world. Every investor, every international organization, every country is interested in Guyana today. Guyana has the fastest growing economy in the world for the third year in a row and is projected to retain this position in 2024. In 2023, Guyana’s economy grew by a phenomenal 62.3%, way in front of any other country in the world by a whopping greater than 50 percentage points above its closest rival. Leaving out the contributions of oil, Guyana’s GDP spurt was carried by the traditional economy, such as agriculture, mining and the service industries, with a non-OIL economic boom of greater than 11%. This too was the largest GDP growth in the world in 2023.

The naysayers said that it has nothing to do with President Ali and his government, that the economic growth was driven by EXXON and oil. No doubt, EXXON and oil have much to do with the rapid economic growth. But leaving out OIL’s contribution, the non-oil economic spurt measured by GDP also is among the lead GDP growth for the last three years and projected to also be the leading GDP growth for 2024. The same people who could not have maintained the pre-2014 economic development today want to diminish the accomplishments of the PPP government. But it is precisely because our government led by President Ali and VP Bharat Jagdeo has led with vision and competence that Guyana established an economic tra- jectory that makes Guyana the rocket ship of GDP growth in the world.

Once we remind the naysayers, such as the PNC-led opposition, they counter that the present economic boom is just a paper thing and that the people do not benefit. This is pure, unadulterated nonsense. To put it bluntly, this argument is sheer “BS”. The infrastructural development across Guyana is what we could have expected over a period of more than twenty years with the economy President Irfaan Ali’s PPP government inherited in 2020. If that economy had continued to grow at about 5% GDP growth, the 2023 infrastructural development would only have occurred in about 2040 and beyond. But because of the rapid economic growth, the infrastructure is being developed by the proverbial “leaps and bounds”.

The infrastructural transformation is being propelled by the building of the new Demerara River Bridge to replace the old one, the new Corentyne Bridge to connect Guyana and Suriname for the first time ever, the highway from Georgetown to Lethem, new highways or improved existing ones in Regions 2,3,4,5, and 6, new or upgraded existing roads in Regions 1,7,8,9, and 10, new schools, new hospitals, dozens of new housing schemes etc. These projects and others are not just things that change the landscape of our country, these projects have social benefits for every single Guyanese citizen. As an example, the Demerara River Bridge will not merely make the Demerara landscape look like a high middle income country, it will help tens of thousands of people who today simply suffer the inadequacy of the transport infrastructure. The new housing schemes will provide homes for tens of thousands of families quicker.

The improved economy also adds to the improved social welfare needs of our people. While many have only paid interest to the increased spending on infrastructure (more than $136B in 2023 alone), the government has directed resources to directly assist people. The cash grants, the Because We Care grants, the increases in salaries and wages, increases in pension and public assistance, the subsidies for electricity and water, direct cash grants for dialysis, the increasing medicine availability for heart diseases and cancer etc., the thousands of scholarships and many other programs directly impact on the lives of thousands of people.

Every community, every region is being transformed before our very eyes, not slowly, but rapidly. This week we highlight the tremendous amount of development that is transforming Region 6. Region 6 – Corentyne/East Berbice is an example of how Guyana is being transformed such that its landscape will no longer be recognized by those who do not visit in the next five years. President Ali and Budget 2023 have outlined the massive development taking place in Region 6. For example, in 2022, more than 500 community streets were improved or reconstructed. In 2023, this number will be exceeded. Soon all community streets in Region 6, in every single community will be upgraded.

The new Corentyne River bridge that will connect Guyana and Suriname will begin design and preparatory work in 2023. This will bring the two countries closer together, but will further ignite the economy. A new Berbice high-span bridge is also in the works for Region 6. The Corentyne and East Berbice highway is being reconstructed to create a four-lane highway. New roads are opening up in what has been known as the “backdam”. These new roads will open up new lands for agriculture and housing and other development. More than 500,000 acres will be opened up as a new Corentyne transport road will directly connect the Corentyne from Orealla to the Berbice River and Kwakwani, with a new bridge across the Canje River behind Gangaram.

In the meanwhile, under government pressure, CGX is completing the deepwater harbor that will not only add to the changing landscape, but create a new economic base for Regions 6 and 5. For rice farmers this new deep water port will mean that transportation cost for rice export will be reduced, leading to greater rice-profits. But other farmers will also benefit. With imports also coming in through Berbice, this will create more business and job opportunities in Regions 6 and 5. The deep water harbor will also facilitate the oil industry. In fact, President Ali has already announced and government’s advertisement for expression of interest has already been out for oil refineries to be developed in Region 6. With new oil refineries, Regions 6 and 5 are likely to see a once-again growing population.

The Government has already been working with the private sector to transform the Palmyra area. A new municipal airport will be built in this area. In addition, a new national stadium, adding to the Providence Stadium, will be built in Palmyra. A new international hotel will also be built in this new development. A private hospital has already been designed for Palmyra. New housing schemes are being developed also to go along with banks and shopping malls. What was once cane fields will now become a booming new town.

Already a new hospital is being built in #75 Village. The New Amsterdam Hospital will be redeveloped. The National Psychiatric Hospital will also be redeveloped. The health sector will see major new developments. In fact, the new New Amsterdam Hospital will include a surgical unit for heart surgeries. Upgrades of Port Mourant Hospital, Mibikuri Hospital and a Polyclinic in Orealla will change the health sector in Region 6. Every health center will continue to be upgraded. CT scans will be available in the new hospital at #75 Village and in the new New Amsterdam Hospital. Dialysis centers will open up in both of these hospitals.

In the meanwhile, Government has already begun work for the new Technical and Vocational Training Institute in Port Mourant that will become an international institute to train both technicians for the Oil industry and other industries and train hospitality workers for the service industry. Indeed, these developments and the provisions made in Budget 2023 will catapult Region 6 into a place that none of us would have imagined possible before 2050. But the development in Region 6 is also happening everywhere in the country.

Guyana’s economic story –leading the world in GDP growth over multiple years – is one that is also seeing the social welfare needs of our people are being met. This generation of Guyanese citizens will be inheriting a country that none of their grandparents could have imagined. Before the 200th anniversary of the freedom of slaves and the beginning of indentureship in Guyana, a new Guyana is rising. Ralieigh’s Eldorado has been finally realized, not by the colonials, but by the descendants of slaves and indentured laborers.