– President Jagdeo
PRESIDENT Bharrat Jagdeo said, Friday, that Guyana has now moved towards sustainability and is making progress, having overcome the debt problem accumulated in the past.
He was addressing the ceremony for the commissioning of the $400M new water treatment plant at Cotton Tree, West Coast Berbice, in Region Five (Mahaica/Berbice).
The Head of State told the gathering he was extremely pleased to be with them to share the very important moment for the community.
“It is important because we are making progress and, in countries like ours where we have to deal with a whole range of inappropriate policies of the past, that led us to financial difficulties and the economy of our country under performing without accumulating wealth for a long period, progress can only be incremental.
“Because we cannot wish away our history… we cannot disown our past,” he acknowledged.
President Jagdeo continued: “And our past has been a past of under development, where, for a very long time, our country lived above it means and, in a country that lives above its means, it doesn’t mean that the people were living above their means but the elite in the country were doing so.”
As a result, tons of debts were accumulated to sustain that kind of living, he pointed out, adding, “with the consequences of any country that would accumulate large amounts of debt that is deferred under development, you cannot, because of the need to deal with the past problems, focus all of the energies of the people of the country on progress and focus all the resources on progress.”
President Jagdeo underscored that this is a major issue for countries like Guyana and, in that context, he referred to problems being faced right now with Greece.
“So a significant part of our history has been to deal with the debt problem that we accumulated,” he reiterated.
However, Mr. Jagdeo said, today, “because we have successfully dealt with this issue and didn’t shy away from repaying the significant amounts of debt that were accumulated in the past, which amounted to some seven and a half times the size of the economy, there is more room for development, where more of the resources can be spent back on the people.”
He went on: “That is the context today and, even at the national level, no one disputes this anymore, because they have recognised that, whilst the rest of the region has continued accumulating debt, Guyana has moved towards sustainability.”
President Jagdeo said Guyana has now moved towards some of the best macro economic statistics across the region.
“I say this to you, because every little thing that we do, every road that we fix, every sea defence structure that we build, every water main that we put in place, every bridge that is constructed is somehow or the other related to that fact, sometimes we ignore it in our analyses.”
He said this country has successfully restored the economy from bankruptcy to financial viability and, today, can pay its way more.
Although it still would borrow, the burden of the future servicing of the debt is minimal, considering using four per cent of revenue today to service that debt, down from 94 per cent of revenue in the past, President Jagdeo explained.
“This is a major achievement for any country,” he declared.