By Ronald Austin Jr
ALONG the northern coast of South America the small nation of Guyana rests beautifully between the south of Venezuela and north of Brazil.

This nation, which is geographically part of South America and socially, culturally, historically part of the Caribbean, has long been touted as the land of great potential. This is the home to the indomitable 270 million hectares of natural formation, the Guiana Shield, which has global significance and is crucial to the planet’s survival.

It is His Excellency President Granger and other notable environmentalists and technical people who are most sensitised by this fact. I am struck by the lack of alarm and awareness by large sections of the population on this issue.

During the 1990s, four Asian economies: Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan maintained exceptionally high growth rates and emerged as highly industrialised nations. This growth was so rapid, observers coined this phenomenon, the ‘The Rise of the Asian Tigers.’ It is hoped that one day global commentators will have no choice but to write about the rise of Guyana.

When one considers that a nation such as Japan with no significant natural resources and being the largest importer of oil, yet having a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of 4.939 USD, the economic rise of Guyana is long overdue. This is the nation with vast resources and a small population, often referred to as the ‘Land of the Jaguar’, the time is really nigh for the economic rise of this country. Our excuses for the lack of being a South American economic giant have become less believable with the discovery of oil. What we will say to the world now? We are literally out of excuses.

Ever since the first oil discovery was made, the world has turned its attention to Guyana. Once confused with Ghana and hardly noticeable to the major global financial centres, we are now the talk of the world markets. The revenues expected from oil are expected to bring guaranteed transformation. To put all of this into perspective, Guyana’s GDP, as of 2016, stood at 3.4 billion U.S. dollars.

An increase of 2000% will see this skyrocketing to 68 billion U.S. dollars. As of 2016, Jamaica’s GDP stood at 14.03 billion U.S. dollars, Trinidad and Tobago 20.99 billion U.S. dollars and Panama 55.19 billion U.S. dollars. The time is now, this opportunity cannot be missed. For decades, our people have endured sitting on ignoble immigration benches, receiving unfair treatment from our Caribbean brothers and sisters who are more economically endowed, this will soon be a thing of the distant past.

The naysayers, doubting Thomases and prophetesses of doom will say this will not happen. They will argue that our politics will continue to hinder this development. They will argue that even with the prospect of oil revenues, we will struggle to see development. These negative sentiments are expected, but I am of the view that the rise of the ‘Land of the Jaguar’ is inescapable.

In 2015, Guyanese demonstrated that they were willing to break from the politics of the past and elect leadership with clean hands who will protect the people’s money. They showed the world that they prefer a post-racial Guyana with a political system that is based on coalition politics. Lee Kuan Yew’s ‘From Third World to First’ should be national compulsory reading.

Lest we forget, the great economic Asian power, Singapore, started as an independent nation in 1965 with no natural resources and emerged in the 1990s as a major economic global power. The rise of the ‘Land of the Jaguar’ is inevitable.