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Dear Editor,
I REFER to a letter that appeared in the Stabroek News on February 8, 2021, in which the former Minister of Finance, Winston Jordan, responded to Mike Persaud on the US$4 million bakery to be set up in Guyana by the Fernandes Group – a Surinamese-owned bakery.
In his response, the former Finance Minister sought to take credit for the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) Invest arm that is now lending to the private sector. The minister stated that during his tenure as Finance Minister he worked tirelessly to get the IDB Invest and the IDB Lab to invest in bankable projects within the private sector.
The manner in which the former minister expressed himself in the letter gives one the impression that the IDB could not find any bankable projects to lend for during his five-year tenure and is only now finding bankable projects. Clearly, the former minister does not seem to understand the workings of the economy.
It his contractionary fiscal agenda during the last five years, egregious economic policies which in turn stymied the private sector and resulted in the underperformance of the productive sectors, coupled with the lack of any major development projects – that explains why the IDB Invest could not find any bankable projects. The simple answer is that there were none because of how the economy was managed under his tenure.
This outturn also partly explains the high levels of non-performing loans in the banking sector of more than 11 per cent, which is higher than universally set benchmarks.
Editor, please permit me to include the links of three articles I wrote responding to the former Finance Minister directly on several issues on the economy – with the view to engage him in a public debate on these matters.
See links below to articles inviting the former minister’s response:
Former Finance Minister’s argument on increase of debt ceiling comical and disingenuous (Part 2)
We need not get excited about oil and gas as it is merely a premium
Editor, the former Minister of Finance should not take credit for counter-productive work.
I eagerly await a response to the above articles written by the undersigned in direct response to former Finance Minister Winston Jordan on several occasions.
Yours faithfully,
J.C. Bhagwandin
Chief Financial Adviser/Analyst
JB Consultancy & Associates
