City Councillor says APNU’s oil-dependent promises risk Guyana’s future

…“not grounded in economic reality” while paying “lip
service to transformation”

City Councillor and businessman Alfonso De Armas has warned that the opposition APNU’s manifesto is dangerously over-reliant on oil revenues, with little emphasis on building lasting wealth for Guyana.
Speaking on the Starting Point podcast, De Armas described APNU’s economic blueprint as fragmented and unsustainable.
“There is one fatal flaw in it, in that there is not a cohesive macroeconomic framework. It’s clear that each section was written by different people who perhaps had different ideas or outcomes in mind. And so there is no cohesive macroeconomic framework that ties everything together,” he observed.
He argued that while the opposition speaks of transformation, their spending promises are not grounded in economic reality.
“It is very heavy on consumption and spending. And while they do pay lip service to transformation, so to speak, it is not clear how that is going to happen,” De Armas noted.
According to him, many of the opposition’s proposals would deplete the country’s revenue base.
“A lot of their proposals would, for example, if you cost them… they would wipe out the tax revenue base of the Government, in addition to more than doubling the required inflows from the national resource fund,” he stated.
De Armas also criticised APNU’s tendency to tie its promises to fluctuating oil prices, warning of the risks of such an approach.
“They essentially propose to tie all this consumption, all this spending, to oil, which is, as you know, a very volatile and finite resource. What happens if there’s an oil shock? What happens if there’s a war? What happens if OPEC suddenly decides that they’re going to have a glut of oil in the market and the oil price drops?” he questioned.

Diversification and responsible planning
By contrast, de Armas stressed that the PPP/C’s approach is built on diversification and responsible planning.
“Our manifesto, our plans – because they’re not even promises, they’re plans – are tied together through a very cohesive microeconomic framework. And by that I mean we propose to take all the revenues, not oil wealth; it’s not wealth yet, right? All the revenues, invest it in lowering the cost of energy, which I think is crucial,” he explained.
He further outlined the PPP/C’s strategy to use revenues to build a sustainable economic base beyond oil.
“Without that, it is difficult to diversify our economy in terms of building out our diversifying our agri-sector and investing in fourth industrial tech, for example, like biotechnology and AI and all these things, and investing in our youth. These are ways in which we can actually create a wealth base for Guyana that does not rely on oil. Oil is not going to be there forever,” de Armas said.
He also criticised APNU’s dismissive rhetoric about financing their promises, pointing to a comment made by one of their leaders.
“It’s funny, I heard Ganesh Mahipal say – well, somebody asked him, ‘Well, how are you going to pay for all of these things?’ Well, he said one thing: ‘FPSOs are coming online all the time.’ It’s crazy to me,” de Armas remarked.
Concluding, the councillor said APNU’s manifesto is “heavy on consumption, heavy on spending” and lacks the focus needed to build lasting wealth.
“There’s not enough focus on how you are going to build lasting wealth post-oil. It’s crazy,” he declared.