GEORGETOWN, Guyana, Nov 15, Guyana’s Finance Minister, Dr. Ashni Singh, says the revenues accrued from the oil and gas sector are still relatively modest considering the country’s developmental needs.
Singh said while the petroleum sector continues to grow and generate economic opportunities, the non-oil sectors must be developed to create a sustainable source of wealth.
“We have seen many examples around the world of countries that were entirely dependent on oil, and if the oil price dips or if the oil production dips for one reason or another, the country finds itself in trouble. We don’t want to be in that situation,” he told a television program here.
He said the government is focusing heavily on developing the transport infrastructure- roads, bridges, drainage, and improving connectivity, particularly in the hinterland.
“Access to our neighbors like Brazil and Suriname is still a challenge. We don’t have a bridge across the river to Suriname, we don’t have an all-weather road to Brazil, and that, of course, you know, some of those infrastructural impediments still weigh very heavily on Guyana’s ability to realize its economic potential,” Singh said.
Guyana currently has an estimated 11 billion barrels of proven oil reserves and is producing about 350,000 barrels of oil per day, with the authorities hoping to produce a million barrels daily within the coming decade.
Singh said the commencement of oil production presents the opportunity to remove the historical impediments to Guyana’s competitiveness and sustainable growth in the long term.
“So, we are using this period to address precisely those impediments to ensure we lay the foundation for long-term growth and broad-based growth far beyond oil and gas.
“We want to make sure that every region of Guyana has good connectivity, good roads so that they are not constrained by the impact of being isolated geographically from the capital city and major marketing centers,” he explained.
Singh said that another area being addressed is electricity cost which historically has been a major issue in Guyana and continues to be a constraint to the emergence of the manufacturing sector.
In the immediate term, Singh said the government is concentrating on ensuring Guyanese can participate in the oil and gas sector and in the transformation of the other sectors.
“We want to make sure that everybody is ICT literate, that they’re able to participate in, as I said, the modern economy, and we already see returns to this. We already have in the oil and gas sector, literally thousands of persons drawn from across the country, drawn not only from Georgetown, not only from Linden, not only from Berbice but also Essequibo, working in oil and gas, directly in the oil and gas sector,” Singh said.
Meanwhile, Singh has held discussions with the Executive President of the Corporacion Andina de Fomento (CAF) Development Bank of Latin America, Sergio Díaz-Granados.
CAF is the development bank of Latin America and the Caribbean which promotes a sustainable development model and the integration of the Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) region through credit operations, non-reimbursable resources, and support in the technical and financial structuring of projects in the public and private sectors of Latin America.
A government statement issued following Monday’s discussions said the government is open to partnerships with financial institutions such as CAF as it forges ahead on its development agenda. “Discussions centered on how the financial institution can partner with the government to ensure its newly found oil and gas resources are steered toward boosting its economy and diversifying a number of critical sectors such as agriculture, tourism, social services, and infrastructure. Government is also pushing its Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS), an area which the Bank expressed keen interest in pursuing,” the statement said.
Singh described the visit of the CAF delegation as historic, adding that Georgetown would like to see the CAF’s future socio-economic development.
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