–budget support, sea defence earmarked
The European Commission (EC) yesterday signed an agreement giving more than 55 million euros ($14.6B) in grants to Guyana under the 10th European Development Fund (EDF), mainly for macroeconomic support to the national budget and maintaining critical sea defences.
Some 4.4 million euros from the total sum are a special allocation for unforeseen circumstances where emergency funds may be required.
Finance Minister Dr Ashni Singh signed the agreement on behalf of the government, while Head of the European Union Delegation Ambassa-dor Geert Heikens signed on behalf of the EC.
Three million euros have been earmarked for the development of land use planning and one million euros for the institutional strengthening of the office of the minister of finance, who will be the national authorizing officer.
Ambassador Heikens told reporters yesterday at the simple ceremony, that over 30 million euros of the sum have been dedicated to the implementation of the poverty reduction strategy and also to help Guyana attain the millennium development goals. Those funds, he said, will be transferred directly to the local budget.
The more than 14 million euros earmarked for sea defences, he pointed out, will see emphasis on maintaining and upgrading rather than building new structures.
Heikens said there exists an excellent level of cooperation between Singh as the national authorizing officer and the other ministries receiving support from EC programmes. He said that while it is sometimes difficult as with the case with the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA), he has realized that there is a sound partnership and most of all a committed group of friends with Guyana’s development at heart.
Making specific reference to the development of land use planning, he noted that Guyana’s land resource is currently considerably underutilized. He added that the strategic use and protection of this resource is central to the country’s development pros-pects and national plans will play a crucial role here.
“It is necessary to have in place a comprehensive plan that will allow for the success of wider governmental policies depending to a large extent on coordinated diversification throughout the ten administrative regions, supported by the necessary planned infrastructure,” he emphasized.
He pointed out that both the government and the commission are convinced that developing a land use master plan will promote sustainable and equitable land management, ultimately leading to poverty reduction. The plan is to also address clearly the environmental sustainability of regional development as well as the need to review and further elaborate legislation.
The Guyana Lands and Surveys Commission will implement this project. Andrew Bishop who served as Chief Executive Officer in the planning phase explained that the plan will cover enhancing the capacity of the commission to develop linkages with all stakeholders. The principal result of the scheme, he added, is to develop land use plans for various parts of the country. It is hoped that one general and three regional plans would be developed.
Institutional strengthening of the minister’s office is being done with the aim of continuing to build the capacity of all the actors involved in the execution of the EC’s development cooperation at the various levels at the ministry. The EC’s support will ensure that technical assistants specializing in EC programmes, methodologies and procedures are engaged to conduct training sessions for the minister’s task force which will in turn conduct on-the-job training for members of the project cycle management unit, line ministries and projects and to further develop capacity through awareness and information sharing.
In brief remarks, Singh alluded to the long, robust and collaborative relationship between Guyana and the European Union which has manifested itself in many ways.
Foremost among these, he said, is the assistance which Guyana has received from time to time with sea defences.
He pointed to the timeliness of such assistance in the wake of Guyana’s fight against inundation, which government has had to grapple with. He also commended the EU for pioneering one of the more modern modalities for delivery of development assistance, which is different than project-driven support.