–Dr Singh says, emphasises govt’s seriousness about responsible economic planning

INVESTMENTS that solidify Guyana’s long-term development will be the highlight of the 2026 budget, Senior Minister in the Office of the President with Responsibility for Finance, Dr Ashni Singh has said.

“So, you will see in our fiscal priorities a very significant reorientation of the budget away from government consumption and towards investment in economic infrastructure that is critical to competitiveness,” Dr Singh said in his address at the Guyana Manufacturing and Services Association’s (GMSA)’s 30th Anniversary Dinner and Awards at the Marriott Hotel, on Wednesday.

He assured the businesses that the government, led by President, Dr Irfaan Ali, will continue to be a responsible government and do all that is paramount to ensure that Guyana navigates the future and ensures its success and their success as investors.

The minister, who delivered the feature address, noted that this was especially since Guyana operates in an unpredictable world economic environment.

“Everybody has been alive long enough to remember an era when oil was US$138 a barrel and we should remember not only the era of oil being US$138 per barrel, but we’ve also in recent memory lived through a period more recently when oil was as low as US$13 per barrel and the reality is that oil did not stay at US$138 per barrel for very long,” Minister Singh explained, pointing out further that just about two and a half years ago oil was US$98 per barrel.

“It’s not US$98 a barrel today, it’s closer to maybe 60 something dollars – a third less than it was two and a half years ago. That’s the reality of the world in which we live. Gold is, of course, an important contributor to our economy, and all of us in this room we celebrate the fact that gold today is US$4,000 an ounce, but we can all in this room remember a period when we were excited about gold even crossing the US$400 threshold and we can all remember a time when gold was just US$450 an ounce. Today it is US$4,000 an ounce. I don’t know who will wager whether it will remain at US$4,000 an ounce,” he explained.

The finance minister then alluded to freight prices, which he reminded have skyrocketed over the last five years.

“And so we must never forget that we live in a very uncertain and unpredictable period, and we know this as a government, and as a responsible government that recognises the reality that we are living in an unpredictable world, and as a government that takes its responsibility seriously, and not only its responsibilities today and tomorrow, but its responsibilities next year and the year after that, and not only its responsibilities in this term of office but in the next term and the term after, and not only for this generation but the generation after, we as a responsible government have to be mindful of these global realities, “ Dr Singh emphasised.

He added that as a commodity-producing economy, one of the things that matter most is ensuring not only survival but ensuring the country’s success and the realisation of its prosperity, notwithstanding these uncertainties long into the future.

Pivoting his address to things that should not be underestimated in relation to responsible policy-making, Dr Singh explained to the forum that ‘we must never underestimate the importance of preserving the democratic credentials of our country and preserving our standing in the international community, including the integrity of our financial system as part of an integrated, unavoidable, integrated global financial and economic system.’

He said that as the country celebrates its successes, it must never take these things for granted, as it can quickly disappear if the democratic credentials of the country were ever allowed to be undermined.

Acknowledging the presence of the United States Ambassador to Guyana, Nicole Theriot at the ceremony, the minister said should Guyana take its current position for granted it can run the risk of becoming a pariah state, or a state isolated by those who traditionally have been its friends, such as the USA.

MACROECONOMIC STABILITY

“We must also never take for granted the importance of macroeconomic stability and macroeconomic resilience. We must never take those things for granted, and when we speak of a resilient economy, we are speaking, of course, of an economy that has strong institutional structures, including now as an oil and gas producer, an economy with a strong natural resource fund, a sound sovereign wealth fund with clear and transparent governance arrangements and clear and transparent rules for the management of the resources in that fund,” he further posited.

At this point he reminded the audience that Guyana stands today as one of the very few countries of the world that has accumulated in its sovereign wealth fund enough resources to be able to pay off the entire external debt of the country and still have cash remaining.

“But also, when we speak of resilience, we are speaking also of an economy that is more diversified and needs to be more diversified because we know that resilience can only be achieved if we diversify the sources of growth and the sources of macroeconomic and fiscal space; and so you will hear us speaking incessantly about the importance of the non-oil economy, and importantly, the importance of a globally competitive non-oil economy,” the finance minister stressed.

It was here that he reminded the manufacturers, producers and service providers present that they are an important part of ensuring that this is realised.

“Irrespective of the sector in which you’re operating, you too have an important role in this mission to ensure that whatever we produce is globally competitive,” the minister underscored.

In 2020 when government came into office, the public investment component of the capital budget in 2019 accounted for less than 25 percent of the total budget, Dr Singh said, as he juxtaposed this to the public investment component of the budget in 2024 accounting for more than 50 percent of the overall national budget because of government’s deliberate policy position.

“The policy position that we will not engage in inefficient government consumption but instead, focus on investing in the things that matter for long-term economic growth and long-term prosperity and for long-term competitiveness,” he noted.

The minister then alluded to hard choices the government has to make in terms of the decisions as to what should be priority investments.

“Because investing in the things that matter for the long term are not necessarily the things that are most popular in the short term, but you have in President Ali’s government, a government that will  not sacrifice the long term at the altar of short-term or immediate-term expediency,” he said sternly, adding: “it requires an explicit policy position, it requires strong leadership and a strong government to ensure that the right decisions can be realised, ensuring fiscal sustainability.”

RESPONSIBLE POLICY-MAKING

“We will ensure that our economy continues to grow rapidly but to be equally clear, particularly in this era of sound bites and competing promises and counter promises, you have in this government, a government that is keenly focused on responsible economic policy-making because more so than any other time in our country’s history, that is what is needed, not sound bites. This is a serious time for our country. We need to be responsible, and we need to be strategic,” Minister Singh concluded.

Delivering remarks at the forum, President of the GMSA, Rafeek Khan, said the GMSA is entering into the fourth Industrial Revolution (Industry 4.0) characterised by the fusion of physical, digital, and biological systems through technologies and genetic engineering, adding that this revolution is driven by data and connectivity, creating a new era of smart, automated and interconnected systems.

He added that it is a new era where the service sectors of the economy will be bridging the gap and driving the overall economic growth.

Khan pointed out that some of the major interconnected services to bridge the gap for manufacturing will include transportation and distribution, finance and Investment, communication, storage and warehousing and professional Services.

He urged that the GMSA, in preparation for the new wave of industrial development, prepare itself in order to serve its members and the overall growth of our new economy and at this point, he unveiled a future campus that he noted would bring value to all stakeholders.

“About five years ago I stood on this platform serving then as President of GMSA, and I echoed a voice from our President, Dr Mohammed Irfaan Ali – to build consortiums. This is the only way for many Guyanese companies to realise the benefits of the major economic growth. Today I am pleased to say that we have witnessed successful consortiums formed with international companies within various sectors of the economy,” Khan posited.

Following this, former President of the GMSA,  Ramsay Ali, also unveiled the GMSA’s new website which allows online purchases from GMSA’s members. The website address is uncappedmarketplace.gy.

Under the PPP/C government, credit to manufacturing grew by 103.7 percent between 2020 and 2024, to $43.3 billion, with notable increases in lending for other construction and engineering, and beverages, food and tobacco sub-categories.

Total private sector credit has also grown by 73.4 percent since 2020 to $450.6 billion at the end of 2024, with double-digit growth recorded over the last four years. Meanwhile, credit to services expanded by 80.3 percent over the same period, to $157.9 billion, driven mainly by growth in credit to the ‘other services’, transportation, professional services, telecommunications and distribution.

At the end of 2024, lending to the private sector grew to $450.6 billion, an increase of 19.8 percent when compared with the position at the end of 2023 and government continues to work with financial institutions to improve loan accessibility for Small and Micro Enterprises (SMEs), ensuring they have the capital to expand operations.

In its 2025 Manifesto, the government has emphasised the importance of economic diversification, support for productive sectors and enabling the private sector, particularly SMEs and has committed to make Guyana the industrial capital of the region through a number of commitments, including completing the gas-to-energy (GtE) project and reducing electricity tariffs by 50 percent to consumers on the grid, thereby eliminating a key barrier to expanding the manufacturing sector.

It also prioritises establishing a SME Development Bank to provide micro-credit loans to SMEs at zero interest, completing the industrial estate at Wales, which will host a vast complex of industrial and manufacturing enterprises, including the manufacture of enough cooking gas to meet and exceed domestic requirements; construct a second such industrial estate in Region Six and work with the private sector to achieve full occupancy at existing soon-to-be-completed industrial estates at Belvedere, Lethem, Onderneeming and York, as well as establish a small-business development complex in Georgetown to provide SMEs with organised spaces and proper infrastructure to grow and operate more efficiently, among other initiatives in partnership with private-sector bodies, including the GMSA.