Dear Editor,
Oil was discovered in Guyana in 2015. It is expected to start flowing in 2020. And Guyana will start receiving royalties soon afterwards.
The APNU+AFC coalition came to power in May 2015. Yet little has been done in terms of planning on how to use the oil money. Since 2015 the APNU+AFC government of President David Granger has seemed to be living in a cocoon. There seems to be no forward economic planning on how to use the oil money to benefit the masses.
Is the oil money going to be used to create much needed jobs in Guyana for Guyanese? Is it going to be used to bolster the treasury? Is it going to be used to create a Sovereign Wealth Fund (SWF) which is then invested to generate more money? Is it going to be used for infrastructure development? These are some of the questions that could be answered.
Clearly the APNU+AFC government needs to tackle its policy paralysis and formulate an economic blueprint on how the oil money will be spent.
Oil is not going to make the ordinary Guyanese man/woman rich or even better-off unless the government start planning on how to use the royalties from oil to benefit Guyanese.
Yours faithfully,
Sean Ori
