The World Bank has announced the elevation of Guyana’s status to a ‘high-income’ country, a milestone in the country’s long and testing journey through the cavernous corridors of poverty and the attendant unpalatable sobriquets – ‘Banana Republic’ being one of those – a development which could set the country on the path to a significantly upgraded global image.
The country’s World Bank-bestowed accolade that lifts Guyana out of the doldrums that have long dogged the country’s global profile is linked to a significant reassessment of the country’s global standing arising out of its confirmed ‘world class’ oil finds. Guyana apart, the World Bank has also adjusted the status of several other countries in its latest annual review, based on their economic performance over the previous year.
The World Bank Group categorizes global economies into four income groups – low, lower-middle, upper-middle, and high. The group updates these classifications every year on July 1, based on the Gross National Income (GNI) per capita from the previous calendar year. The World Bank’s nudging of Guyana up the ladder of global ‘rising stars’ comes just eight years after the United States’ oil juggernaut, Exxon Mobil, announced its first discovery at Stabroek Block in 2015. It is the potential enormity of what has been termed by the global media as a “world class” oil find that has pushed Guyana to a place close to the top of the totem pole of the world’s oil producers.
In theory, at least, the World Bank’s new assessment ought to impact on Guyana’s image, both regionally and internationally, though the perceptions of Guyana are only likely to change completely after the potential afforded by the country’s ‘oil wealth’ is converted into tangible socio-economic accomplishments that significantly raise the standard of living of the population while attracting external investment to Guyana. While the latter process is being signaled through marked external investor interest in Guyana, the physical transformations aimed at positively altering the lives and livelihoods of Guyanese is proceeding briskly but, predictably, not anywhere close to the expectations of the poorer section of the country’s population.
Government’s expansive infrastructure buildout has resulted in the awarding of several lucrative contracts in the construction sector though the public knowledge that money is no longer “an issue’ has generated accelerated expectations among ordinary Guyanese. While the government’s ‘share-out’ of a G$100,000.00 handout to every Guyanese has begun, seeming logistical challenges linked to the execution of the exercise means that months after the announcement was made thousands of would-be beneficiaries are yet to benefit from the official gesture.
