PPP presidential candidate Irfaan Ali must explain the about-face from his party’s view that benefits from oil won’t be seen before 2025 to now saying that benefits would flow from the first year of a PPP/C administration, Minister of Business Dominic Gaskin says.
“We know that his party leader [PPP/C General Secretary Bharrat Jagdeo] has accused the government, when it spoke of the sector, of selling dreams. He said that the benefits won’t be had until 2025. So it is notable that Mr Ali is now promoting the benefits of oil and gas, new and exciting sector…,” Gaskin, also an AFC executive, told a party press conference yesterday.
The AFC believes that the benefits of oil and gas are already being seen in terms of investments, job creation and revenues and these will increase exponentially over the next two years, Gaskin said. “The AFC holds the view that the coalition government is best placed to manage Guyana’s revenues and to ensure the Guyanese people and Guyanese businesses are the main beneficiaries of these revenues,” he asserted.
Last Sunday, the newly-anointed PPP presidential candidate vowed that he would not disappoint and made grand pledges that “from year one” of his administration, over $100 billion would be invested in Guyana and 50,000 new jobs created.
“In the next PPP/C government, we will be creating more than 50,000 new jobs all across this country. We will be creating, through the use of ICT, an education platform so that people could have education via distance learning. We are going to see all through e-governance, e-education, e-health…using the electronic means to achieve growth in our country…,” Ali told attendees at a meeting in his hometown, Leonora.
With a promise that if elected, they will never have to call him “lazy”, Ali vowed that he will make his hometown proud as, according to him, he plans to work fervently to create and implement policies, both fiscal and social, that would see Guyana benefiting significantly, moreso with wealth from its emerging oil and gas sector.
“I assure you that I will not disappoint you. I assure you that I will not be lazy. I assure you that I will be out there. I assure you that I will not buckle under any circumstances. I assure you that I will not succumb to any threat under any circumstances that will come our way. I will stand with this party and I will stand with all of our supporters and all of Guyana against any threat that comes our way,” said Ali, who is facing charges over the allocation of house lots to Cabinet members and other persons in the Pradoville 2 Housing Scheme during his tenure as Housing Minister.
The basis of the charges is that the lands were sold far below their value. His academic credentials have also come under scrutiny.
Ali listed plans he has for the country should he be elected President. “We will see more than US$500 million ($100 billion) invested in Guyana from year one, under the next PPP/C government. We did this before, without oil and gas and we will do it even better in the next government and (on) a much larger scale with the development of oil and gas. We are talking about the development of farms, huge farms, and the giving of incentives to rice farmers so that they can expand their production, increase yield and our production in terms of tonnage can be increased so that we have more rice that can be exported on the world market. And our cost of production will come down. These are the types of programmes that would break us through into the future and create the wave of economic wealth and well-being of all of our people in this country,” he said.
But Gaskin said that the public should grill Ali on how he plans to realise his “grandiose” plans.
“The AFC is not amused by the ‘We did this before without oil and gas and we will do even better in the next government on a much larger scale with the arrival of oil and gas’. The party is of the view that the PPP/C should not be given the opportunity to do what it did before and on a much larger scale,” he said.
The Minister of Business pointed out that his party notes Ali’s recent statements about large investments and said that the populace should compare it with the fact that his government has larger achievements. “It must be noted that GO-Invest alone is projecting to facilitate investments valued at US$300 million – US$400 million, and these do not include investments in the mining or petroleum or retail and commercial sectors. So this plan or programme that Mr Ali is proposing is not unusually ambitions but he may wish to revise his figures upward if he is seeking to compete with the coalition government in investments,” Gaskin said.
“It should be noted that from year one Mr Ali has accused the government of mismanaging the economy and he has conjured up all sorts of data to support his case. His analysis has been flawed and self-serving. It would be interesting to hear from him, what are the specific economic policies that he plans to pursue bringing about those 50,000 jobs he promised. He should also explain to the Guyanese people whether these are for Guyanese or for some other group to whom he may be beholden,” he added.
