GUYANA has made notable progress in the area of debt management and Finance Minister Winston Jordan will be visiting the OPEC Fund for International Development (OFID) Headquarters, Vienna, Austria next month to sign an Investment Protection Treaty, among other activities.
This was disclosed by Minister Jordon at the opening session of the National Workshop on Sustainable Funding Strategy, held recently at Pegasus Hotel, Georgetown.
The workshop began on June 12 and will continue until June 16 when a closing ceremony will be held.

“We have joined the Islamic Development Bank and we are renewing our relationship with the OPEC Fund for International Development (OFID),” Minister Jordon said.
He noted that Guyana is also having preliminary discussions with the new development bank, also known as BRICS Bank, with a view of accession, whenever that bank makes the decision to expand membership beyond the five original members.
Jordon said the BRICS Bank is an important repository of resources for infrastructural development and Guyana would like to tap those resources to help to narrow infrastructural deficit in Guyana.
Under the Public Debt Management Capacity Building Programme (PDP) Strategic Country Plan for Guyana, Jordon said there have been notable achievements.
He said Government redoubled efforts to ‘raise the bar’ in the management of public finances, including the public debt, in order to heighten transparency and accountability, value for money and efficient and effective allocation of resources.
“Some of our policy measures may be bold in their intent, leading to unpopular reactions. However, while governments are often swept into power on a wave of popularity, they are similarly swept out ignominiously when they succumb to demands,” the finance minister explained.

He added: “Especially by special interest groups, to implement policy measures that have short-term gain for these groups, but long-term pain for the mass of the population. History is a great teacher, for which we should learn its copious lessons.”
Government, he said, cannot become complacent.
“The lower debt ratio was achieved at the expense of the unsatisfactory implementation of the Public Sector Investment Programme (PSIP). Where we failed to achieve an exemplary disbursement rate of our foreign funded projects, this led to the unacceptable situation of negative net inflows by our major donor, at a time when foreign exchange supply was challenged because of under-performance in critical sectors and areas of the economy.”
Cognisant of the impact on the public debt, of the many loans contracted by the previous administration, the finance minister said the repayment of whose debts, nevertheless, are being met by the government and, by implication, the citizens of this country – “at least those who pay taxes”.

With an outer debt ceiling limit of 60 per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), Jordon said these loans have restricted the fiscal space and reduced room for maneouvre, at a time when Guyana is seeking to implement a new generation of transformative projects such as the Demerara Harbour Bridge and the Georgetown-Lethem Road.
“Even with past fiscal consolidation and oil revenues on the horizon, we must be cognisant of the new challenges that confront us such as dwindling sources of concessional financing and vulnerability to external shocks,” Jordon said.
He explained that government is uneasy about borrowing against future oil revenues.
“We have to be wary of the volatility of the oil market and our capacity to utilise such resources in a transparent and accountable manner. We will continue to assess the situation and weigh carefully our options before any decision, in this regard, is made.”