The state of the economy and particularly how visionless the budget is seemed to have dominated numerous articles, letters to the editor and columns which ramble about stimulus packages, global warming, rise in salary among other issues.

Those writers need to realize that Guyana is a developing country and the budget is designed to meet the needs within our country’s resources and crafted in the context of the global financial crisis.

This year’s budget is targeting the delivery of social services and from my understanding just under $35B has been provided for these services.

The budget aims at improving health and building and repairing health facilities across Guyana. They have made provisions for human resources to work in these institutions, secured scholarships through bilateral agreements with Cuba and this sees hundreds of Guyanese students becoming health professionals.

Our primary and leading hospital has been allotted $1.1B to build an In-patient facility for patients. The hospital now has the capacity to do surgeries which were never done in the past; this shows development since it will preclude the need to travel overseas for major surgeries such as kidney transplants and others.

The Caribbean’s first National Ophthalmology Hospital is also completed right here in Port Mourant and is at present screening patients.

There is a much emphasis on developing the Meteorology Station; this will provide better apparatus to allow the tracking of the shifting weather patterns.

I have followed the allocations for varying areas, but those who are permitted the benefit of podiums to get their arguments over don’t highlight the positive things in the budget.

This thrust is also seen in the Agriculture sector which forms a major part of Guyana’s economy. This year millions are being spent to build new outlets in the conservancy dams in Canals Polder, which I believe is a reflection of the importance placed on the sector.

Commendable also is the change in the agricultural sector, as the focus is placed on other means of generating revenue and not depending solely on sugar. This will be beneficial to a larger range of agricultural producers and communities.

I can ramble on about these modest but significant things and how they can be beneficial to the people of Guyana, but I wouldn’t.

I urge those who cannot see the bigger and futurist nature behind the allocations in the budget to be more analytical and see the positives.
Judy Pearsall