By Abena Rockcliffe
Only recently, Guyana’s Head of State, Dr. Irfaan Ali said responsibility for the “progressive, innovative and dynamic” growth of the country rests with the private sector. In fact, the president stressed: “The government’s role is to ensure that we create that environment” for this to occur.
Days after, as he presented at the Guyana Energy Conference, internationally recognized and respected development economist, Sir Paul Collier warned that over reliance on the private sector can turn out quite problematic for a developing nation.
Sir Paul prefaced this argument as he highlighted the importance of strong and prudent governance, especially in resource rich countries. He pointed to neighbouring Venezuela, a nation with enough oil resources to make it the richest country in the world, yet, the reality is anything but this. Professor Collier noted that the leadership and governance crisis in Venezuela has caused over two million natives to leave their homeland and become refugees across the world. Therefore, it is obvious that it is not enough to just have the resource, but to manage it well.
Professor Collier accepted and noted that there are many strategies to be employed by oil producing nations with the desire to make the best of the resource.
He recalled offering a specific piece of advice to the President David Granger administration, one that was not readily accepted as the golden key. Professor Collier told former President Granger that having an educated population is one of the best ways to manage wealth. He said Granger told him of the migration problem facing Guyana for years where 80 percent of the educated citizens leaved their homeland and take their education and, in some cases, expertise elsewhere.
Professor Collier now offers a different remedy. He took the podium at the energy conference last week, armed with four recommendations that can be adopted to secure a better Guyana.
At the top of his list was a stern recommendation to avoid overreliance on the private sector.
Professor Collier said that a small team of public servants coming from the Ministry of Finance and Office of the President should be created. That team should be armed with professionals who understand what has to be done/ built, and what are the functions that simply cannot be pawned off the private sector. Effective tax collection, the building of public infrastructure, the widening and deepening of employment opportunities, the building of financial capacity to manage bank reserves and mitigation, are some functions that can be overlooked by this team.
Further, Professor Collier stressed that citizens should be doing all the middle level tasks needed to build the country. That might be harder to dictate if being handled by the private sector.
Second on his list of recommendations for Guyana is to diligently work on attracting members within the Diaspora to return home for business and government jobs. Given, the known fact that more Guyanese are living outside of Guyana than home, Professor Collier said government ought to tap into that resource.
Third, the development economist said the government should co-own the challenge of building capacity.
Lastly, Professor Collier said the government ought to employ a powerful communication strategy. He said the government should ensure the dissemination of really powerful narratives expressed in simple ways.
