There has been much fuss and excitement over the vastly increased income that Guyana has accrued. Terms like “fastest growing economy” and “oil rich country” are thrown around on a daily basis. Some Guyanese believe that the popularity of the nation’s relative success is causing others to lose sight of the reality that fastest growing economy does not translate to Guyana being a rich country.
In fact, Guyana is considered “developing” with a long way to go to become on par with even some of her sister countries, especially infrastructurally.
Highlighting this fact recently was Member of Parliament and attorney-at-law, Sanjeev Datadin.
Datadin was at the time explaining, during a Facebook programme, why it is “nonsensical” to even consider adopting a “handout” approach when handling monies from the nation’s Natural Resource Fund (NRF).
Alliance For Change (AFC) Leader, Nigel Hughes recently put forward an argument for a portion of oil revenues to be used to fund cash distributions to each Guyanese adult.
Datadin, who sits as an MP on the government’s side, reiterated that it is not in favour of blanket cash distributions. Instead, the focus is on overall infrastructural and social developmental projects while allowing for strategic handing out of grants that put money directly in the hands of citizens.
Datadin said that it would be wholly irresponsible of the government to abort a developmental agenda to support handouts. “We are a poor country,” Datadin emphasized. He said that suggestions that “we have all of this money and we should start to share it out” was born out of a nonsensical belief that prevailed under the last government. “They thought we were rich. That is why the spending was what to that extent. That why deficits in the budget were created during that time.”
Datadin said that it is that very “spend all” sort of mentality of the APNU+AFC government that resulted in the PPP/C government having so much work to do in 2020 when it took back control of Guyana.
The lawyer said that Hughes and others will do well understanding, “Guyana is not a rich country. It is a country with great potential and we are earning handsomely from our oil revenues. We are the fastest growing economy, GDP growing at an enormous rate. All of these things mean that Guyana is on the right trajectory but don’t fool yourself Guyana is still not a rich country. It is simply a country with great potential.”
Datadin said that in order for Guyana to realize its potential there must be prudent management of its resources as well as proper investments. He said that only then will the country become “infinitely better off.”
Datadin stressed that it would not be prudent to ignore electricity woes, the need for infrastructure and interventions to address the rising cost of living to spend that money behind handouts. “Advancing projects is what is good for the country,” he posited.