– Finance Minister
INVESTORS’ interest in Guyana is evident now more than ever  in the country’s history, according to Minister of Finance Dr Ashni Singh who credited the assertion to the policy environment created by the People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPP/C) administration over the years. The Finance Minister was at the time speaking at a panel discussion hosted and moderated by Dario Mclmon on the weekly television programme, ‘Eldorado Rising’, on the National Communications Network (NCN).
The discussion centred on progress in the Guyanese economy and Minister Singh made reference to a few of the traditional sectors (rice and bauxite) that can “hold their own competitively” on the international market, the former (rice) recently reaching a production record and the latter (bauxite) attracting the large investors.
“We see in Guyana a bauxite industry that even in the last throes of the global economic crisis when commodity prices were depressed to their absolute lowest, when metals and minerals had hit rock bottom… the Guyanese bauxite industry never stopped production, it continued to produce,” Minister Singh said.
Recently, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was concluded between Guyana and Guyana Goldfields Incorporated for the Aurora gold project in the Cuyuni River, Region 7. The Canada-based company has enough potential to single-handedly double the output of the gold industry once the operation gets underway.
Meanwhile, manganese mining in the North West District, Region 1, has been reinvigorated after agreements were sealed in March this year with Reunion Manganese Incorporated.
Moreover, the government is working closely with a bauxite company in an area at Bonasika that has not been prominent in bauxite production but has the potential.
“You have all of these companies who have said, we are confident in the Guyanese investment environment… and they are creating jobs in the process, they are generating incomes in the process, they are creating wealth in the process,” Minister Singh said.
The Finance Minister then spoke of oil and gas which are at present attracting major exploration investments from REPSOL, the internationally renowned oil exploration company.
Grouped together, international investor confidence in Guyana, from the exploration sector would reach an aggregate Cdn$2B, according to Dr. Singh.
“The policy environment we have created and, as a result of the track record we have created, you have had significant investment in new and emerging sectors too,” he added.
Low fiscal deficit and debt, strong external reserves, stability in the exchange rate and lowering of interest rates and containment of inflation to single digits were some of the measures which Minister Singh said created an attractive environment for investment.
“What distinguishes the Guyanese economy of today from the Guyanese economy of 10 (or) 20 years ago and what distinguishes the Guyanese economy of today from the economies of other Caribbean member states is the level of progress we have made in diversifying the sources of growth,” Dr. Singh said.
It is widely known that Guyana now uses 4 percent of its revenue to service debt compared to the era when it took 94 percent. According to the Guyanese Finance Minister, the balance of payments, accumulation of external reserves, containment of inflation, and stability in the exchange rate have all been positive.
“All of these indicators come together to reflect what I would describe as an extremely robust performance in recent years but, also more importantly, they come together to create an environment that has clearly signalled itself to the domestic and international private sectors as an attractive environment,” he posited. (GINA)