The government’s massive investment in infrastructure and the social sector is paying dividends as significant improvements in these areas have resulted in Guyana moving up 22 places on the Global Competitive Index produced by the World Economic Forum. In addition, it has emerged at the top among the 10 most improved countries.
In an article in this newspaper yesterday Ron Cheong and Danny Doobay reported:
“Almost unnoticed, Guyana turned in the best 2 year improvement of the 133 countries in the Global Competitiveness Index produced by the World Economic Forum.
From its lowly position at 126, Guyana scaled +22 spots to come in at 104 in the just released 2009/2010 report.  At the same time Switzerland displaced the USA in the top spot and Singapore moved up +4 spots to take the number three position.”
“In the CARICOM reference group only 4 of the other 14 countries made it on the survey.  In comparison to Guyana’s +22 place improvement, Jamaica declined -13 places and Trinidad declined -2 places while Barbados and Suriname improved +6 and +11 places respectively. The other big gainer on the South American continent was Brazil (+16) which the report characterized as the Latin America and Caribbean regional giant. Uruguay gained +10 and Peru gained +8 while Columbia and Argentina were unchanged.  Venezuela and Bolivia each lost -15 places, Chile was down -4, Paraguay was down -3, and Ecuador was down -2.
The rankings are established on 12 pillars of competitiveness in the table below and their sub- indices.”
“Guyana made good progress in Institutions, Infrastructure, Health and Primary Education, and Higher Education and Training, while Financial Market Sophistication and Market Size dragged on the improvement according to the report.”
The article noted that the improvement in institutions was fostered by a reduction in burdensome government regulations, more transparency in government policy making and improved efficacy of corporate boards.  But issues clustered under the security sub-index had a significant negative impact on this category as reflected in the business costs of crime and violence.
This is extremely good news for our country which is striving towards boosting its trade and accelerating economic development by attracting more investments in a difficult global environment. It is also another demonstration, contrary to what the cynics are propagating, that the government continues to have its fingers on the correct buttons.
Considering that when this government assumed office in 1992 infrastructure was virtually in a state of collapse, educational and medical institutions were run down and the economy was in shambles burdened further by a massive debt of US$2.5B, the transformation that has taken place is truly phenomenal.
It is therefore not surprising that in recent years there has been a growing interest by investors in this country in several sectors including petroleum exploration, mining, agriculture, renewable sources of energy, etc. Currently, an Iranian team is here mapping our mineral resources as well as a high-powered Brazilian business team exploring trade and investment opportunities with our country. CGX recently reported some exciting prospects of Guyana becoming an oil producer and is expected to begin drilling operations by the end of this year.
But all these positive developments did not happen through some miracle, rather they are happening because of a government that is committed towards the economic development of the this country and the improvement of the lives of the Guyanese people. Consequently, it has been working steadfastly to achieve this goal through the implementation of appropriate policies and programmes.
As a result, the local private sector and foreign investors have been showing growing confidence in the national economy and this upward climb on the Global Competitiveness Index will enhance and boost that growing confidence of the business sector.