From international panhandler to global hot spot

– Guyana’s image makeover

WHEN Jamaican Prime Minister, Andrew Holness, paid a courtesy call on Prime Minister, Moses Nagamootoo, in July last year, he remarked that he sees “Guyana on the cusp of a boom period.”

Prime Minister Holness’ well-grounded prediction was a vast departure from what was once said about Guyana by another Jamaican Prime Minister who had reason to remark, during the previous decade and under Mr. Bharrat Jagdeo’s presidency, that Guyana had a global image of “an international panhandler.”

Decades before Guyana had of course, commanded considerable respect regionally and internationally, but then things happened. Several things conspired against Guyana–some external, some misfortune, some unavoidable and some self-inflicted. And our international image began to fray and eventually became tattered and battered.

At the height of the disintegration was the Jonestown massacre. We have not yet fully exorcised the ghost of that dark day nearly 40 years ago. Jonestown is still what many people internationally think Guyana is synonymous with. That being among those who distinguish us from Ghana.

Prior to Jonestown, in July 1973, the price of oil on the world market stood at an affordable US$19.69 per barrel. In seven months it skyrocketed to US$52.02 per barrel by February 1974. Six years later oil price had reached a then all-time high of US$117.28 per barrel – an almost 500% increase from the 1973 price.

The cumulative effect on the fuel-importing Guyanese economy is well known. The economy contracted and arguably necessary but unpopular measures were implemented in the 1970s and 1980s which caused confidence to be eroded and Guyana to lose face and respect. Mass migration ensued and continued with intensity well into the 2000s.

Regional and international reportage on Guyana was almost exclusively negative. From hardships of acquiring basic food items to questionable elections to a twenty year absence of local government elections to obscene corruption to spiraling crime to extra-judicial killings to being a narco-economy and a major drugs transshipment point to multiple massacres to nepotism and cronyism – Guyana attracted only undesirable media attention.

Now things are achanging. Guyana’s international image is taking on a new dimension. The reason for this is two-fold. The first and most obvious and undeniable reason is the enormous oil find which has been located in our waters.
Forbes Magazine, Bloomberg News, the New York Times and other high profile international media houses are now reporting favourably and even excitedly about Guyana.

In a June 2016 Forbes article titled ‘With Second Big Oil Dicovery, Exxon Puts Guyana on the Map,’ Christopher Helman wrote, “[t]he virtually unexplored waters of Guyana… are fast becoming a hotspot of global oil exploration.”

A Bloomberg article of July 2015, opens with “[a]n Exxon Mobil Corp. discovery in the Atlantic Ocean off Guyana, may hold oil and natural gas riches 12 times more valuable than the nation’s entire economic output.”

And in a January 2017, New York Times article, Clifford Krauss, wrote “Guyana… is poised to become the next big oil producer in the Western Hemisphere, attracting the attention and investment dollar of some of the biggest oil companies in the world.”
The article continues, “It’s not often that a country goes from 0 to 60 so fast like this,” said Matt Blomerth, head of Latin American Upstream Research for Wood Mackenzie, a consultancy firm. Industry excitement over Guyana was stirred by a widely distributed report… by the firm that said, ‘Guyana is rapidly joining the ranks of serious oil and gas players.’

The second reason is that there has been a restoration of executive decency and order. Following the historic elections of 2015, several measures have been implemented to restore confidence that Guyana is setting the foundations for a truly democratic and model developing economy.

1. The Public Procurement Commission has been set up. No longer will the authority for contracts reside with Cabinet.

2. The Fiscal Management and Accountability (Amendment) Act has been passed. This act allows for constitutional agencies – the Parliament, GECOM, the Public Service Commission etc. – to independently manage their budgets without government interference or control.

3. The Telecommunications Bill has been passed which will allow for the removal of the monopoly in the telecoms sector.

4. The United States Drug Enforcement Agency finally opened an office in Guyana after several years of being frustrated, stymied and blocked from doing so. The consequence of this is self-explanatory.

5. The United Kingdom Security Sector Reform Programme which was scrapped by the PPP regime, is on its way and British Senior Security Sector Reform Advisor Mr. Russell Combe is already in Guyana setting up office.

The list is practically inexhaustible and what is provided above is merely illustrative to underscore that strategic and deliberate action is being pursued by the Coalition Government to restore confidence in Guyana at this most exhilarating juncture of our history. Guyana is in effect at the tail end of a period bracketed by the oil story.

In the 1970s, Guyana’s economy dipped into a tailspin as a result of stresses on its economy occasioned by skyrocketing oil prices. Now, over four decades later, oil is once again the hot button topic in town and Guyana’s ticket out of protracted poverty. Prime Minister Holness captured it succinctly–Guyana is on the cusp of a boom period.

SHARE THIS ARTICLE :
Facebook
Twitter
WhatsApp
All our printed editions are available online
emblem3
Subscribe to the Guyana Chronicle.
Sign up to receive news and updates.
We respect your privacy.