Latest update April 18th, 2024 12:59 AM
Aug 16, 2018 Letters
Dear Editor,
I wrote this letter on the 20 July, 2018 and decided not the send it to be published because I thought that people are not really listening, they are caught up in doing one activity after the next. However, I decided to send it after I read Anthony Paul’s comments as reported in the Kaieteur News on 3 August, ‘Future contracts must include provisions for ring fencing, be sanctioned to new laws’ and on 6 August, ‘Guyana urgently needs a clear picture of priorities, shared national vision oil’; extracts from a UNDP report. Here is the letter below.
I would just like to re-iterate a point I have made in previous letters, we need to be more strategic as a country. There are a lot of activities, economic, social and others but WE NEED POLICIES! WE NEED POLICIES! Strategies are not enough. Strategies should evolve from policies or expand into policies.
What we need is a broad development and economic plan for the country; a document that lays out our plan or course of action around which the government, businesses, institutions individuals, the international community, investors will be mobilized, organized and become oriented. A document that will guide and influence and determine our decisions, actions, thinking and general behaviour.
A national policy from which other policies such as our foreign, economic, social, etc. will evolve around. The national policy document will provide a greater sense of purpose for both our institutions and citizens. A national policy will link, how our institutions will work, what people should study and our progressive growth path, so that the role of our people, especially our young people, our young professionals can be moulded. For decades, perhaps since the National Development Strategy 2001-2010 we have not had any comprehensive national development policy to guide us.
Here is an extract from the Staff Research Report for the ‘US-China, Economic and Security Review Commission’ states that his 80-chapter, more than 60,000-character document seeks to address China’s “unbalanced, uncoordinated, and unsustainable growth” and create a “moderately prosperous society in all respects” through innovative, coordinated, green, open, and inclusive growth. It is the most environmentally-focused FYP (Five Year Plan) to date and reinforces the Chinese government’s commitment to rebalance the economy to more sustainable growth based on higher-value-added manufacturing and domestic consumption. The 13th FYP also broadens the Chinese government’s stated commitment to innovation, emphasized in the 12th FYP, and to improving citizens’ quality of life, an effort that began under the 11th FYP through prioritizing the environment, health, education, and social welfare. The 13th FYP created a blueprint for China’s future development based around five key themes’. These are: Innovation, coordinated development, green growth, openness and inclusive growth.
My proposal is, we focus on organizing Guyana’s development and economic programme around six pillars: these are the: Green Economy, Blue economy, Service Economy, Agrarian Society or Agricultural Economy, Oil and Gas Economy and Natural Resources Economy; all of our policies, strategies, programmes and plans will be developed around these as well as be interlinked in order to achieve our overall national and development objectives.
What is noteworthy about China’s focus is that the country is on their 13th FYP, hence underscoring continuity. If Guyana’s development and economic agenda is built around the six pillars mentioned, the country can follow a similar path of continuity for the next 30-40 years because there are not political party specific. There would obvious be some changes more in terms of how they are achieved but fundamentally could be generally accepted.
At the moment we are activity-driven, let’s take the new bridge to be constructed over the demerara river. That is an economic activity to create greater and possibly easier access. It contributes to the transportation sector, add value to infrastrutural development, but where is the wider context. Let’s now link it to the wider context of the service economy, natural resources economy and the agriculture economy, specifically as it relates to Regions, 3 , 2 and 7. As people we will then be able to locate and relate the positive impact of the new bridge to the development of specifically these three regions. This will also inform the debate on whether to keep or not to keep the Demerara Harbour Bridge based on the projections for these three regions, not only as it relates to residential usage but economic activity, both bridges will be necessary.
Policy development requires specialized skills and expertise according the Paul ‘as important as this is for the subsequent stages …this stage is often ignored or improperly developed. One of the reasons is that it requires deep specialist analysis…to be combined with a clear assessment of the country’s consensus on its development outcome’.
Finally, to many of our young and old people seems not to know or to have lost their sense of purpose as to their role in the growth and development of their country.
Audreyanna Thomas
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