President Dr Mohamed Irfaan Ali said the previous government must be held accountable for the rapid decline in key sectors of the economy during its term in office.
In a detailed presentation during a live broadcast on Sunday afternoon, the head of state explained that it is crucial to contextualise the sectors’ development, taking into consideration the grave state of affairs that occurred between 2015 and 2020.
“It is important because this year we’ll be making decisions that compare leadership policy programmes between two governments: the government that destroyed the sector between 2015 and 2020, and that’s the APNU-AFC government, and what we did,” he said.
President Ali reminded listeners that the sectors support more than 30,000 families countrywide.He emphasised that the PPP/C has been consistently accountable during the period that it has been in government, and continues to own its track record of advocating for sustainable development. However, he pointed out that the same cannot be said for the APNU+AFC.
“I heard one of the leaders of the APNU+AFC saying they’re not concerned about four years ago, or they don’t have to answer for that period. But you have to be accountable for the period you were in government,” he stated.
President Ali said it comes as no surprise that the opposition is unhappy with its dismal track record while in office because it reveals a lack of polices and creative ideas which led to a complete destruction of Guyana’s economy.
In the forestry sector, the head of state said that two of the sector’s largest investors, Baishalin International Forest Development Inc. and Barama Company Limited were forced to seize operations.
“This was as a result of direct policy intervention that shut these large investors down, affecting thousands of jobs,” the president asserted.
This loss had a debilitating ripple effect, since the companies supported key infrastructure that empowered small miners with access to a wider market. With their departure, the cost of production increased dramatically and the market dwindled.
“All the incentives were removed. There was no support in terms of infrastructure to support the small miners. The export of the total production, which had reached a peak of 500,000 cubic metre annually in 2015, fell to 400,000 cubic metres by 2020. Exports of the forestry sector declined by 35 per cent,” President Ali explained.
He further noted that this resulted in a loss of foreign currency and led to a plummeting of employment rates; from 22,000 in 2015 to less than 14,000 by 2020.Moreover, severe fees were imposed on small and medium-sized loggers, increasing from $450 million in 2014 to $910 million by 2019. This represents a 118 per cent increase in fees.
“They want to run from this record, their 2015-2020 record, when they imposed a 118 per cent increase in fees for small and medium sized loggers. What resulted? When we left office, the Guyana Forestry Commission had a surplus of $211 million. By the time we got to 2020, that surplus was completely eroded. Due to the dwindling cash flow, the commission was unable to pay staff,” he said.
The president further contended, “And worse than that, the bonus that the People’s Progressive Party/Civic Government gave the forestry workers was removed. That was the state of affairs of the forestry sector when we came back into government.”
President Aliadded that the bauxite sector faced similar hardships, with 50 per cent of its workforce being put on the breadline between 2015 and 2020.
“During the APNU+AFC Government’s tenure, there was no investment in Guyana. There was absolutely no investment in the hinterland roads, in the mining roads and in the infrastructure to support bauxite mining and forestry.
When we came back in government, we had to reinvest in those infrastructures and expand those infrastructures. That is the difference between the APNU+AFC Government that killed everything, killed the productivity of this country, and the PPP/Civic that has built back and is taking our country forward on an upward trajectory,” the head of state asserted. (Department of Public Information)
