THE rate of economic growth has not been the same since the passage of the 2014 Budget, while this year’s budget was delayed due to the Prorogation of Parliament and the subsequent holding of general elections.Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Carl Greenidge yesterday shared his views on the reported economic slowdown during an interview with Chris Chapwanya on the ‘Hard Talk’ radio programme broadcast on 90.1 Love FM.
With reference to complaints by business people that there is an economic slowdown here, he noted that there is no evidence to support such a notion but acknowledged that business persons would say that after the May 11, 2015 elections things have slowed down.

“After the budget of 2014, I don’t think the rate of growth has been the same because of the uncertainty over the date of elections, along with other issues at the time,” said Minister Greenidge.
Apart from that, prior to a budget businessmen will ‘hold their hands’ until they hear what the annual budget has to offer, he said.
The former minister of finance alluded to the fact that a lot of businessmen also held a fear over the passage of the Anti-Money Laundering (AML) bill, which is why some persons may not have invested in their businesses as they would have liked to.
FOREIGN INVESTMENT POLICY
Meanwhile, asked to speak about the foreign investment policy, Minister Greenidge highlighted that in the investment strategy there are sectoral priorities and while they might seek to gain more investments, they must find investors who would bring sufficient capital and use their expertise to act as a magnet for Guyanese investors abroad.
Additionally, “while not only looking for new investors we must also find persons who would invest in new areas which haven’t been explored as yet… as these companies would be more than welcomed to invest here in Guyana,” he said.
CONCESSIONS
While investors might be important, there must also be some sort of transparency in the investment regime, as a major contributor to the alleged slowdown in the economy, unfair allocation of concessions is another factor which would stop investors from investing in a country.
Speaking about this, Minister Greenidge noted that there were a lot of complaints which reached the Government about unfair allocation of concessions which was practised by the previous Administration.
“So far we have attempted to engage these companies as a primary step before publicly condemning them… all investors must be treated fairly when it comes to the allocation of concessions,” said Mr. Greenidge.
In addition, Go-Invest must be questioned because they gave a lot of confusing answers in the past, but yet the concessions had been granted. Therefore, they must find out why and by what process this has happened, the Foreign Minister added.