Latest update April 24th, 2024 12:59 AM
Nov 12, 2017 APNU Column
(Excerpts from an address by HE David Granger, President of the Cooperative Republic of Guyana, to the 71st sitting of the 11th Parliament of Guyana on November 2nd 2017)
PATRIMONY
Your Government, ever mindful of our duty to secure our territorial integrity and protect national sovereignty, has been engaged in various, vigorous diplomatic initiatives.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, with the strong support of the Opposition over the past 30 months, has aimed these efforts at reaching a peaceful resolution to the territorial controversy which arose out of the contention by the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela that the arbitral award of October 1899 was null.
The controversy was placed before the Secretary General of the United Nations, in accordance with the Geneva Agreement of 1966. Mr Ban Ki-moon demitted the UN secretary-generalship since my address to the National Assembly last year. He delegated responsibility for continuing the process to his successor, Mr Antonio Guterres. I met the incumbent UN Secretary General on 25th September in New York and his Personal Representative on 11th April in Georgetown.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs has met the UNSG’s Personal Representative on several occasions. We are engaged, at present, in a renewed Good Offices process. We are confident that the common commitment of the Government and Opposition will eventuate in strong national support for a juridical settlement of this controversy which has impaired the development of our Nation.
Guyana’s natural resources are also part of our patrimony. We must protect and sustainably manage these resources.
The institutional capacity and the adoption of an appropriate legislative and regulatory framework for the sustainable management of the Nation’s natural resource sector, including the emergent petroleum sector, are being strengthened through the efforts of the Ministry of Natural Resources.
The Ministry will deploy a Corps of Wardens to enforce laws, regulations and codes of practice in the mining and forestry sectors. The capacity of the Petroleum Department, which was established this year, is to be strengthened.
The Ministry, at the policy level, is aligning the mining sector with our national ‘green’ development agenda. It is promoting biodiversity-friendly practices, low-impact prospecting, the use of efficient technologies, and the phasing-out of mercury use in the gold-mining sector.
The Forestry Plan and Policy has been revised in order to place greater emphasis on the management of the forests’ multiple, down-stream goods and services. The Guyana Forestry Commission, monitors deforestation and forest carbon change. It has been promoting the utilization of less-used local timber, in the construction sector.
The petroleum industry will become another pole of economic diversification. The oil and gas sector is going to provide resources to transform the country’s development. We intend to align that transformation with the objectives of Guyana’s ‘green’ development agenda.
Your Government is seeking the best advice and laying optional plans for the development of the petroleum industry, including the establishment of a Sovereign Wealth Fund. We have tabled the Petroleum Commission of Guyana Bill.
The Ministry of Natural Resources is preparing a suite of other legislation and regulations to support the development of the incipient petroleum industry. Consultations will continue on these draft documents, including the Petroleum Act, Environmental and Occupational Health and Safety Regulations and Local Content Policy.
THE ECONOMIC SECTOR
The Nation’s economy has been prudently managed over the past 30 months. This has allowed for moderate economic growth of 3.1 per cent in 2015 and 3.3 per cent in 2016, despite the unfavourable external environment. Gold was the main contributor to this growth, with 712,707 ounces being produced last year, the highest in our country’s history.
Economic growth would not have been possible without the achievement of macroeconomic stability. The Ministry of Finance has acted to create a favourable environment for business development, to protect investments, to moderate inflation and to maintain a stable exchange rate.
Your Government adopted measures to improve the living standards of workers. The minimum wage of public servants increased by over 50 per cent, or from $39,540 to $60,000, within the past 26 months.
We reduced the income-tax rate and increased the income tax threshold by a minimum of 20 per cent – measures which boosted our working people’s disposable income.
National competitiveness has been enhanced by the reduction of the corporation tax rate for manufacturing and non-commercial companies from 30 per cent to 27.5 per cent. The Value-Added Tax (VAT) was reduced to 14 per cent and the VAT threshold increased from $10M to $15M.
Intensifying the focus on food security under the theme “food for all” – the slogan inscribed on the iconic 1970 ‘Cuffy Dollar’ – the Ministry of Agriculture has been building a more resilient agricultural sector. It has supported the production of traditional crops, diversified production and improved agricultural infrastructure.
Investment in agricultural infrastructure has been effected through the rehabilitation of major farm-to-market roads in the Essequibo Islands-West Demerara, Demerara-Mahaica and Mahaica-Berbice Regions. These investments have reduced post-harvest losses and led to lower commodity prices.
‘Water harvesting’ is being promoted in the Rupununi Region in order to ensure that adequate amounts of water are available during the long dry season. Farmers are benefiting from improvements in drainage through the installation of pumps in the main agricultural regions – Pomeroon-Supenaam, Demerara-Mahaica, and East Berbice-Corentyne.
Hinterland agriculture is being catalysed and diversified through increased adoption of agro-processing. Your Government is promoting the cultivation of spices in the Barima-Waini Region, tomato production in the Potaro-Siparuni Region and cashew and peanuts in the Rupununi (Upper Takutu-Upper Essequibo) Region. We are promoting agro-processing as a means of increasing production and farm earnings and of generating employment.
Your Government will continue to support the traditional sectors of the economy, particularly the sugar industry. We have provided G$31B in financial support to the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GUYSUCO) in order to protect the livelihood of workers and to arrest the corporation’s financial haemorrhaging.
The sugar industry is being consolidated; it is not being closed. We will explore all options in the new financial year, 2018, to ensure a viable industry, mindful of its impact on the Nation’s rural economy and its residents.
Measures have been taken to improve the business environment. These include reducing the processing time for investment agreements; implementing a trusted-trader programme, establishing business registration hubs in the Potaro-Siparuni and the Rupununi (Upper Takutu-Upper Essequibo) Regions.
The Ministry of Business has been working to improve national economic competitiveness. The national ‘green’ development strategy will promote a range of options aimed at providing reliable and renewable energy – a key measure for improving competitiveness.
Your Government has been promoting increased investment, improving the business environment, increasing value-added production and exports and developing the tourism sector. The Guyana Office for Investment has facilitated, since May 2015, 240 investment projects valued at G$187 B. The tourism sector continues to show promise with a 14 per cent increase in tourist arrivals between 2014 and 2016.
We also are rebalancing the economy, horizontally, through our support of the micro-, small- and medium-scale enterprise sector, mindful of its tremendous potential to generate local employment. Loans and grants have been issued under the Hinterland Employment Youth Scheme (HEYS), the Linden Enterprise Network (LEN), the Micro- and Small-Enterprise Development (MSED), the Sustainable Livelihoods and Entrepreneurial Development (SLED), the Women of Worth (WOW) initiative and the People of Worth Entrepreneurial Resources (POWER) initiative.
Two new business incubators are also being developed at Belvedere in the East Berbice-Corentyne Region and Lethem in the Rupununi at a cost of G$263 M to further boost small business development and stimulate job creation. Your Government has issued 2,727 loans and grants valued at more than $825 M for small business development and its concomitant multiplier effect on job creation.
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