Dear Editor,
Your editorial (Monday, December 6) looked at several issues relating to immigration to Guyana and my comments are restricted to the basic problem of Guyana’s low and declining population. You said it best:
“It also makes sense to try to boost population numbers as a larger internal economy is created and there is a greater growing of wealth. Had there not been the exodus of decades before, the population of Guyana today could easily have been over two million and providing the ignition for greater economic development. Today the population hovers around 740,000 with great concentration on the coastland and the sparsely populated interior.”
Guyana should be attracting more Chinese and Indians, more of everybody with drive and investment capital, and do its best to attract them. That’s what rich nations like Canada, the UK, and yes, the USA all do. The governments there go all out to market their countries to immigrants with high skills and money to invest. Nothing’s wrong with that.
Imagine Guyana with a sizeable population base of hard-working and entrepreneurial people – of all races The front pages of the Stabroek News and the Chronicle would be less filled with crime stories and court news. The country would be relying less on remittances from the 1.25M overseas to the 0.75M at home.
Think about it!
Yours faithfully,
T Yhip
Canada
