OUTGOING US Ambassador to Guyana, Brent Hardt related in an interview recently that the relationship between Guyana and the United States is “well beyond what happens in Parliament,” adding that he doesn’t believe the current political impasse will affect Guyana’s relationship with the U.S.Hardt noted that U.S. relations with the Government of Guyana cover a broad range of issues and what transpires in Parliament is regarded by the U.S. as an integral part of the democratic structure of the country.
He explained that even so, the more effective Parliament can be, the more parties can find appropriate compromises and the stronger the country will be in its move towards development.
According to Hardt, the U.S. has recognised the Government’s call for greater consensus which was one of the forces driving the LEAD project initiative. “And that’s one of the reasons we have been advocating for the LEAD project because one of the principal goals of that was to develop programmes and initiatives to foster consensus building in Parliament,” he said.
This, Hardt related, is a way of making their contribution to parliament that is more strategically focused on those issues that can benefit the people.

MISSED OPPORTUNITY
“We saw the missed opportunity with the hydropower development where the last of the unanimous parliamentary consensus prompted the U.S. company involved to decide to pull out of the arrangement and having reliable cost effective energy supplies is really emerging as one of the key factors to encouraging development throughout the Region,” the Ambassador noted.
He stressed that Guyana has some of the highest energy costs in the world and if efforts are going to be made to develop a manufacturing sector and profits are being consumed by the cost of energy, it is going to make it harder to be competitive on a global scale.
As such, Hardt concluded by highlighting that the lack of consensus has impacted important development initiatives. As a result, the U.S. labels it as important while they have continued to lend support in engaging a Parliament that is stronger and more effective and one that reacts to the needs of the people rather than being consumed with internal positioning and political bias.

(By Ravin Singh)