FRIDAY, Budget Day, marks a national moment, the start of an upward journey that fulfils the hopes, dreams, and dedication to this land of its citizens, that rewards Guyanese for their decades of hard work, perseverance and dogged fight to conquer social and economic and democratic assaults against the body politic, that delivers on the faith of the Guyanese people that one day Guyana would deliver to them the life it always promised its people.

When Senior Minister with responsibility for Finance within the Office of the President, Dr Ashni Singh, strides to the podium at Parliament on Friday, adorned in his signature conservative-style suit and tie, briefcase in hand, his expression sombre and serious and focused on the monumental, historic task at hand, the eyes of every Guyanese all over the world, both local and in the worldwide diaspora, fixated on him with keen attention to his every word, this crowning moment will be the fulfilment in the heart of every Guyanese from the birth of this nation. The 2021 National Budget will be the most progressive, ambitious, futuristic, forward-thinking, and record-breaking budget in Guyana’s history.

Here is the moment that this nation has waited for, for so long, 55 years since Independence, but even before, when local leaders rose up to challenge colonial rule, dreaming of the time when Guyanese would live the reality of the promises of this land, a land that lured the world to its shores, including the empires of the Dutch, French, Spanish and British, with much promise of prosperity and progress and peace, and a land that bears in its belly the sweat and tears and back-bending labour of its builders–the slaves and Indentured labourers– and generations of citizens. The legendary potential of the Guyanese nation is world renowned, with Sir Walter Raleigh recording the glittery prospects when he wrote his narrative on El Dorado.

Today, with the exciting oil and gas sector, and also positioned as one of the world’s models of nature and sustainability of the natural environment, Guyana is awakening from its long decades of slumber like a legendary sleeping giant, shaking off the shackles of colonialism, of the oppression against its democratic ideal for 28 years under the People’s National Congress (PNC), and from five years of harsh, draconian rule under the misfit Coalition, to this moment on Friday, to Minister Singh standing up with great dignity and visionary purpose, his voice of calm confidence and rational assurance echoing across the Guyanese nation and into the hearts of Guyanese wherever in the world they settled, delivering the national blueprint and economic plan for the year ahead, the policies, projects and programmes and plans that will launch Guyana into its journey to world class transformation, to a wealthy 21st century nation, and a respected and wealthy people of the global village.

Much work is facing the government after Minister Singh delivers the budget speech on Friday. The global pandemic is the first task at hand, with the Emergency Budget of September 2020 already having started to tackle the impact of that global crisis, with a strong stimulus package for every Guyanese household. Moving ahead into the post-COVID world would require bold leadership, innovative thinking, and a national will to engage in flexible futuristic foresight. The world is in a state of flux given the COVID uncertainty that every country in the world faces. And as Guyana prepares to roll out its new era of prosperity and exponential progress, the country needs to focus on designing its path forward with dynamic ability to roll with the tide, to ride the storms and to overcome unforeseen global circumstances.

Government has shown great stamina and skillful ability to overcome challenges and odds, in the way President Ali and the ministers galvanised the State to tackle the pandemic and, with rapid ease, to overcome the harsh economic landscape that the Coalition had left behind. Based on the way the government tackled its governance mandate once it came in to office in late 2020, Guyanese could be assured that whatever comes up, their government would exercise the leadership integrity to come out victorious. One sees that also in how the government handled the Venezuela crisis, achieving the release of the 12 fishermen whom the Venezuelan military coastguard had captured in Guyana’s territorial waters.
The budget will deal with tough, challenging issues, like the pandemic and how to build the society after the COVID era is over, and the plethora of mega projects coming on stream this year, that this nation has never before seen in its history, and with a massive exponential escalation in its socio-economic development and well-being.

Government has set some ambitious and record-breaking goals in its elections manifesto, daring to dream big, setting benchmarks so high that other Caribbean nations could only watch with astounding amazement. Minister Singh will be making concrete the big dreams of the President Ali Government, goals of 50,000 jobs, of mega development all along the East Coast and East Bank and West Bank Demerara, and in Essequibo and Lethem and Berbice, and 20,000 scholarships, and nation-wide high speed Internet, and an agenda never before seen in this land. Friday is a day that Guyana will mark in its history books, that this is the day Guyana came to the table for all its people, every Guyanese seeing for the first time that the legendary potential is a real possibility.