.jpg)
This forum allows the private sector and other stakeholders to interface with the Government with the aim of identifying priority initiatives and interventions and policies with a view to improving Guyana’s competitiveness.
GROWTH & DEVELOPMENT
The Finance Minister said while Government has ensured that the necessary policy framework is put in place, it is the private sector that has been investing heavily and exerting the necessary efforts to ensure continued competitiveness.
“Every day the private entrepreneurs in Guyana respond to the policy environment that was created by the Government; they mobilise their savings, take risks, invest in economic ventures, work hard, and create jobs…” the minister said.
According to him, even the harshest of critics will have to concede that the domestic economy has performed exceedingly well in the last five years in the face of the most testing external circumstances.
Guyana has managed to preserve macro-economic and interest rates stability; ensure that all macro-economic indicators are trending in the appropriate direction, contain inflation, create an environment conducive to mobilising domestic savings, and motivate domestic private investment and attract external investment.
He explained that the world, as well as the domestic economy is very dynamic and everyday new challenges have to be responded to. This requires hard policy choices, which the Government has not shied away from. He said that often times the Government has opted for policies that may not have been the easiest or the most politically attractive, but what was in the best interest of Guyana.
“We will continue to constantly keep our eyes firmly on the long-term future of Guyana and we will always take the decisions that are consistent with this bright long-term future,” Minister Singh assured.
He spoke of all the opportunities that lie ahead for Guyana, especially as it relates to the new sectors such as tourism, services and manufacturing and Information Communication Technology (ICT).
AMAILA PROJECT
Turning his attention to cheap and reliable power, Dr Singh said that almost all of the private sector investors in Guyana currently carry the capital cost for back-up power because of the incidences of interruptions in the electricity supply. This is compounded by the fact that they also pay more than they should for electricity.
“The single biggest impediment to more rapid private sector growth in Guyana is the lack of affordable and reliable electricity,” he said.
Minister Singh explained that for the first time in the country’s history, there is an achievable solution in the Amaila Falls Hydro Power Project (AFHP). This solution he said has been studied extensively and has been the subject of consultations and information sharing.
This project has also had the support and involvement of one of the world’s pre-eminent institutional investors, the Blackstone Group and major development partners such as the China Development Bank and Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). Since its announcement, the project has also won unprecedented domestic stakeholders’ support, including the private sector and organised labour.
“I believe that this generation has the responsibility to ensure that we do not miss this chance…we should not condemn the next two generations of Guyanese to development retardation…the energy constraints in Guyana must be fixed, the Amaila solution is before us and within our reach and we must all ensure that we do all that we can to secure this solution,” Minister Singh said.
He reminded of the reality that there is no alternative solution that can be accomplished within the next decade and questioned if Guyanese would prefer to spend the next decade or two pursuing some other option instead of the one that is within reach.(GINA)
