HOW Guyana cares for its most vulnerable citizens, such as seniors, the differently-abled, children, the poor and needy, and even the unemployed, furnishes the best benchmark for good governance, of which governments of the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) over the nation’s history proved over and over again to be stellar exemplars, with every one of its national budgets incorporating social safety net programmes, a sustainable development vision, and stronghold policies that maintain the private sector as the engine of economic growth. In the current environment of the global COVID pandemic, Budget 2021 would further provide relief, stimulus, and cushions for Guyanese facing hardships, with key social programmes incorporated.
Guyanese always look forward with eager anticipation to a PPP/C budget day, because citizens have come to expect key provisions of social safety nets. The national budget becomes a launching pad into a new future in the minds of citizens, rather than a heavy burden around their necks, as they have had to endure for five years under the myopic Coalition regime.

One of the most exciting aspects of Budget 2021 is the roll-out of new initiatives and help for the most vulnerable Guyanese, to give people a hand up, allowing nobody who wants to succeed to fall through the cracks, the state providing a safety-net platform from which any person could self-develop, raise his/her standard of living, and contribute to the nation’s progress.
The 2021 budget stands out in its mandate to exponentially expand opportunities for education, with 5,000 scholarships already earmarked for this year for ordinary citizens, both at local and overseas education institutions, and 20,000 on the drawing board for the five-year mandate of the President Ali government. Expanding the nation’s skills base and average literacy level and pool of professionals is the single most important factor in Guyana achieving its potential, and the government recognises this important factor, even enshrining a role for the global diaspora community.

Much is packed within the 2021 budget, ranging from developing a national digital culture; entrenching higher education as a natural process of how citizens self-develop; harnessing a sound sustainability agenda that balances out the oil-and-gas sector, and raising the standard of living through GDP growth, in housing development and fostering an investment climate for mega projects to sweep across the country.
Guyanese thus look forward to Friday’s budget speech from Minister with responsibility for Finance within the Office of the President, Dr Ashni Singh, with excited expectation that the speech would set the tone for 2021 and in fact the next five years, that Guyanese would live to be fruitful, and see their days full of opportunities, with jobs available everywhere, across every town and village and the city.
With the world today in a state of transition into a new normal, as the global COVID-19 pandemic pushes fundamental systematic reforms of how society operates, the 2021 budget would stimulate Guyana’s progressive agenda.
Attorney General Anil Nandlall has already started the state’s engagement with the relevant United Nations institutions regarding Guyana’s international mandate to fulfil its role in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, which involves key legislative work. Other international alignments will become necessary as the new world order post-COVID unfolds, for example, aligning with the goals of the Paris Accord; achieving a net-zero emissions target for Georgetown and coming into partnership with the global agenda set out under the World Economic Forum’s blueprint for the post-COVID global village, as outlined in the documents The Great Reset and The Davos Agenda.

All these complex issues the 2021 budget will pave the way for over the next five years, providing the framework and groundwork for the systematic and structural reforms and initiatives that Guyana would have to implement as the international order builds into a futuristic society for mankind, post-COVID.
These are exciting times, despite the pandemic’s scare, but government has proven in the last six months in office that is it capable, efficient, and forward-thinking as it governs the Guyanese nation to ease into the new future that the country is facing. Government is even starting to sound a note of careful optimism regarding Guyanese banking too much on the oil-and-gas sector for its national wealth in the long-term, and is instead sensibly positioning the other key economic sectors to perform at optimal level, including agriculture, mining, sustainable forestry, manufacturing and agro-processing, and tourism. In a world that is rapidly becoming an open global digital playground, expanding the local marketplace for the creative and artistic industry online is also a big goal of government.

Budget 2021, then, is a futuristic, forward-thinking, wide-ranging blueprint for Guyana’s development through 2021 and towards the next five years, incorporating local scenarios, but also the fast-evolving international situation as the pandemic causes a fundamental rethink of how the global village functions.
Every country in the world today is focused on providing heavy relief stimulus packages to people suffering fallout from the pandemic, and Guyana is no exception, as the government ensures that healthcare, financial aid to the vulnerable, and tax incentives to businesses that most need help all come into play. Vice-President Bharrat Jagdeo said the state is planning to reduce electricity rates by a whopping 80 per cent with the gas-to-shore project that will transform the Wales and West Demerara communities with new industrial activity and new housing areas and newly opened lands for development.
These are challenging but exciting times. And Budget 2021 on Friday will roll out the blueprint for Guyana to move ahead with its vision, development, and positioning in the international arena, all while caring with profound heart and soul for its most vulnerable citizens.