…Norway funds catered for
On Monday at 14:00 hrs, barring some catastrophe of apocalyptic proportions, Minister of Finance Dr. Ashni Singh will present his fifth national budget in the Parliament. The minister, in an exclusive interview with the Guyana Chronicle yesterday, disclosed that Guyanese can expect to see further focus on the social sectors as the multiplier effect of this goes well into the country’s future. He said that “Policy Continuity” is the characteristic that is germane to this year’s budget, not unlike previous years.
“Policy continuity…this means that the policy stance of the government is very carefully and prudently designed and, once adopted, is embraced with a consistency that allows for this continuity to take place,” said Dr. Singh.
He said the policies of the administration are responsible and they are well-known, with clear aims, which have informed successive budgets. But the minister was mindful of questioned posed by this reporter and said that he will disclose a little more about the budget come Monday.
According to Dr. Singh,  gone are the days when budgets were something that people braced for with fear and uncertainty.
“Some 20 to 25 years ago, persons awaited the budget with great anxiety, now knowing what announcement would be made that could potentially adversely affect their business or their livelihood. Those days are gone. They are consigned to the past and there is now absolutely no anxiety that surrounds the presentation of the budget because our Government’s policies are known and predictable,” he said.
“We have also pursued the objective of, first of all, returning our country’s infrastructure to an acceptable state, particularly in the early years and also investing in infrastructure, both in terms of expansion of infrastructure network and upgrading of that network,” he said. Dr. Singh added that the benefits to the  business environment and to standards of living “is an obvious one.”
“People want better roads in their communities…people want to have access to farms to markets, across rivers or from one Region to another. We have also addressed the core quality of life issues: social services, access to education, and access to health. Not only because those things impact on people’s lives today, but also because we believe that this is possibly the best investment for the future…ensuring that our young people have the best possible education and this is a long term investment. When you invest in primary education, you are really investing in the productive future of the country 20 or 30 years from now. These are the little kids who are going to grow up to be the professionals, the civil servants, the journalists, the teachers and the business people of tomorrow,” he said.
He called this feature of the Government’s spending “core themes” that have been reflected in successive budgets and will continue to be reflected “as we go forward.”
The Minister said a lot of work is being done to lay the foundation for new sectors which are emerging, “so that they could take root and grow.” This, he said, is part of Guyana’s modernisation agenda.
The Minister called the housing programme the centre piece of the Government’s social policy agenda of late.
“We see the housing programme from many dimensions. We see it, first of all, from the dimension of giving every Guyanese family an opportunity to own their own home. Not that it is an obvious and appealing objective…I don’t believe that there is any family, anywhere in the world, that does not aspire to own their own home,” said the Minister.
“That is a micro-level objective that we know is important to every family and so we regard the housing programme as an opportunity to have those aspirations fulfilled,” he said, adding that this has been achieved.
“If you look at successive censuses you actually see that the number of households is growing more rapidly than our population. [Further], average household size is coming down, so that suggests that people who previously have been part of a larger household are now branching off on their own and becoming a household in their own right,” he said.
Speaking of the other dimensions of development that the housing programme brings, Minister Singh said: “You create business opportunities, you create the potential for new commercial centres to emerge, you create opportunities for the private sector to grow.”
He alluded to the examples of Diamond/Grove on the East Bank of Demerara and Parfaite Harmonie on the West Bank of Demerara, noting that the development of these areas is good for the creation of jobs outside of the traditional sectors. “Every bank, every business, every supermarket that opens is creating jobs in that community,” said Dr. Singh.
But he said that there is yet a third dimension to the multiplier effects of housing sector development.
“That is, empowering families to participate in the formal financial sector. By this I mean when you give a person a plot of land, they can go to the bank and use that as collateral to borrow. They then build. They then own a home that they can use as security for a loan to start up a small business and we have seen thousands of examples like this…people start out with their allocation letter; they get a small loan, they build their house, they pay for their mortgage, they then use the property to collateralise the loan to start a business.”
Another impact of the housing programme, according to Dr. Singh,  is that the housing and construction sector is one of the fastest growing in the economy, a fact that must be credited to the development of the sector by Government.
The Minister confirmed that, notwithstanding the furore in the public about whether or not Guyana will be able to access the funds allocated under the Norway-Guyana MOU in 2009, those funds will be catered for in the national budget. The Finance minister said he will be speaking to this issue extensively come Monday when he announce the much anticipated 2011 budget.