‘We have a very clear definitive plan for oil & gas revenues’ – Guyana Chronicle

-President Ali tells Al Jazeera

PRESIDENT, Dr Irfaan Ali has emphasised that the government has a very clear plan for the management and use of Guyana’s oil-and-gas revenues, which will see prosperity of all Guyanese.
President Ali made the declaration during a recently aired sit-down with international broadcaster Al Jazeera. Speaking with Al Jazeera’s John Hendren on “Talking to Al Jazeera,” the Head of State made it clear that every single Guyanese stands to benefit from the country’s patrimony.

“We have a very clear plan, we have a very definitive plan. And that plan includes all of humanity. I’ve made it clear, the prosperity of Guyana must lead to the prosperity of the region, the CARICOM region and the region around us. We want to contribute positively to humanity,” the President declared.

Responding to Hendren on whether ordinary Guyanese will feel the benefits that investments from the oil-and-gas revenues will bring to the country, Dr Ali argued that while some political elements may seek to oppose Guyana’s transformational path for their own political agenda, there’s no denying the current and future development taking place in the country.

The President pointed to the many infrastructural, social, and economic developments already taking place across the country, from which thousands of Guyanese are benefitting. The President made it clear that there are several visible ways in which the government is making the lives of all Guyanese better.

“When you are able to give your citizens the best possible healthcare; when you’re able to announce measures that are giving every single citizen who requires dialysis a cheque every year; when you’re able to give every school child a transportation grant to help them to go to school; able to give them a uniform grant; when you’re able to increase old age pensions; when you’re able to ensure the primary healthcare is working for its best for the people.

“When you’re able to build roads all across the country to reduce the cost of transportation; when you’re able to expand and open up tens of thousands [of] new acres of land for agriculture; when you’re able to deliver 50,000 house lots to people; when you’re able to construct a child and maternal hospital; when you’re able to invest in free education, 20,000 scholarships; when you’re able to have a programme that will see $150,000 Guyanese trained as coders.”

The President was unafraid to highlight that the international media has a tendency to question the ability of developing countries to equitably manage massive resources, but the same line of questioning is not put to developed countries.

“The sad thing is, many of the mainstream media, you go to the US and many countries that were built on oil and gas, built on fossil fuel and you don’t ask if the ordinary people felt the effect of fossil-fuel revenues.

“But in small countries termed Third World, we say that they don’t know how to use their revenue, they need a guiding light on how to use their resource,” the President lamented.
Discussing the fear of the “Dutch disease” and “resource curse,” the President informed the interviewer that Guyana has taken many cautionary tales from other countries; he assured of safeguard measures in addition to looking at the prudent management of the resources.

The Dutch disease is an economic term for the negative consequences that can follow the rapid development of one sector of an economy, leading to the decline of other sectors; the resource curse refers to a paradoxical situation in which a country underperforms economically, despite being home to valuable natural resources.

“I don’t like people saying it is ‘resource curse,’ we must be frank enough to say it has been a management and people curse. It is bad management of decisions that are made by people that has made this resource become a negative in terms instead of a positive. That is why we are very, very careful in terms of what we are going to do as a country,” the President said.

“We understand what it takes to manage the country without resources, so we more than understand the responsibility that comes with managing a country with resource with this opportunity to transform the life of every single person.”