PRESIDENT Donald Ramotar has expressed both confidence and optimism in Guyana’s growth potential, saying this country can become a modern and developed country in his lifetime.

“As I have said before, although I am no spring chicken any longer I still believe I have enough in me left to witness Guyana moving from a middle-income developing country as it is so described to being in the not-too-distant future as a developed country,” the 64-year-old Guyanese Head of State said.

He was speaking at the commissioning of Unicomer’s new and one-of-a-kind US$6M Distribution Centre on Wednesday where he lauded the massive investment which he said is very much a part of the “whole idea of making Guyana a modern and developed country.”

The President, however, alluded to the fact that for Guyana to achieve such a status, it has to be a joint effort. “This project itself is a grand partnership among the Government, private sector and other stakeholders to work together to make us a modern society,” he said.

This foresight and expressed confidence by the President that Guyana can become a developed country in his lifetime is not merely an optimistic hope; but a doable and achievable reality.

One can easily allude to the fact that Guyana was rated on international developmental indices as being on par with Haiti before the PPP/C administration assumed the primary executive offices in the land in October of 1992.

Graphed during the PNC administration as the least developed nation in the world, with a crippling debt burden – the repayment of which seemed improbable to International Funding Institutions, Guyana’s development, under the astute leadership provided by successive PPP/C Presidents, guided by the brilliant developmental blueprint crafted by the visionary Father of the Nation, Dr. Cheddi Jagan, took off like a runaway train.
And after a relatively short time-span of approximately two decades, Guyana is now being recognised by the world as a middle-income developing country, and described by one Caribbean leader as “The only shining star in the Caribbean.”
So with such a track record the President’s prognosis heralds great things for this nation. As he explained, “The whole idea is to make Guyana a modern and developed country.”

The Guyanese Head of State went on to elaborate on some of the measures the Government has put in place to expand and strengthen people power, with education and its facilitation being central foci.
Indeed Guyana has come a long way since the PPP/C first took control of the affairs of the state, with a transformation that amazes those who ran away during Guyana’s dark years, who are visiting for the first time without recognising the destroyed country from which they had escaped; so greatly has the national socio-economic landscape been altered.
But one can only imagine what levels this country would have reached if there had been a co-operative political Opposition, instead of a destructive cabal bent on stymieing, and even reversing social development and economic growth in the country.
One of the worst disincentives to private investment in Guyana is the high energy costs, which sends overheads skyrocketing, especially in the manufacturing sector; and the Government has attempted to address this problem through Hydropower, but had reached the usual developmental roadblocks in the form of the Opposition, which used every armament in their arsenal to shoot down the project.
The President elucidated: “… we can give (and are giving) our people more skills in the anticipation that we were close to having cheap energy.” He explained that it is very well known that not having cheap energy is one of the most important factors that have not allowed Guyana to go forward as fast as it could have.
However, he was adamant that, despite the recent setback with the Amaila Falls Hydro Project, “… we are still determined that we will have that project built here in Guyana so that we can provide cheap energy for the development of a strong industrial manufacturing sector and a strong processing sector…We have a progressing agricultural sector and we can easily develop an agro-industrial complex,” he said.
As the President spoke, outlining future transformative plans geared to making the dream of taking Guyana from a middle-income developing country to a developed country, one could only hope that the joint Opposition could allow good sense and patriotism to prevail over self-centred agendas to work along on these visionary plans and projects that would benefit all Guyanese and create of this country, not only “the only shining star of the Caribbean, but the shining star of the world.”
The Government has always held an outstretched hand out to the Opposition and all stakeholders in the nation, but with scant success of co-operation from the joint Opposition; and history will record their contributions to the development of this nation. History will also document the contributions made to the inhibition of progressive endeavours. The ball is in the Opposition’s court.