Post the December 21, 2018 no-confidence motion, there have been no major disruptions to the economy but long-term investors may have delayed planned projects, according to Minister of Finance Winston Jordan.
“There is no major disruptions to the economy production wise. The public sector investment programme is being implemented but I will not be naïve and not recognise that perhaps persons who wanted to make investments, long-term investment, would’ve held back to see where the economy is going but short term investment plus those who have already invested significantly will not suddenly stop,” Jordan said as part of an interview for his Ministry’s Dollars and Sense programme aired on Saturday.
The minister supported President David Granger’s pronouncement that a perception of political instability is a misperception.
Granger had told reporters on Wednesday that “it’s a misperception. There is no chaos or confusion or crisis in the political situation. Everything that has happened since the 21st of December has been logical and on the part of the government it has been within the framework of the law.”
He stressed that he doesn’t know how “valid” that perception is but as far as he is concerned, the government has done “nothing to engender any disorder or any despair in the business community.”
Accordingly, he noted that “I don’t want to say whether that’s a valid perception or not but we are continuing to work [and] naturally people felt that there was some chance that the claims made at the different levels in the political community were valid but we don’t think so.”
Granger told reporters that everything government has done thus far in response to the passage of the no-confidence motion is in accordance with the law or the Constitution. “I have tried to point this out, so if that is the perception, well, I think it’s quiet unfortunate but I will meet them, I will meet the Private Sector Commission, I will meet any group as long as I am in the country to do so and assure them that everything we have done has been open, transparent and in accordance with the law.”
GCCI’s immediate past president, Deodat Indar had said on Monday that letters were penned to the president and the opposition leader the previous week regarding the effects of this uncertainty on the business environment, based on the findings of a survey. Up to that point, neither had responded.
“We have said to both of them that we avail ourselves to them to lend support to whatever outcome to better the situation. I think at the end of the day, all we want is that businesses have a stable environment to operate in,” he had said at a press conference held to introduce the newly elected GCCI Executive and Council.
GCCI’s president Nicholas Boyer and Senior Vice-President Timothy Tucker had insisted that the “political uncertainty” continues.
Boyer had stated that this situation will continue to affect the business climate in Guyana until the Caribbean Court of Justice delivers a final ruling on appeals to the no-confidence case.
“The faster that we can get to a steady environment, the faster all of us can really be more strong and firm in our planning processes back in our offices, because it is really hard to set out a two-year or three-year strategic plan when you open the newspapers and you still have that uncertainty hanging over,” Boyer had said at the press conference.
