Finance Minister talks up Guyana’s economic transformation plans with IsDB Group in Uzbekistan

Despite the country grappling with the ongoing global pandemic and recovering from unprecedented floods, Senior Finance Minister, Dr Ashni Singh on Friday said Guyana still has an abundance of bright and exciting opportunities in its current momentous juncture of economic evolution.
He made this declaration during a presentation at the 2021 Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) Group’s Annual Meetings in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.
“As one of the world’s newest oil producers, with the potential to become a significant supplier on the global scale, Guyana is poised for a dramatic structural shift in our economy. We intend to seize this moment to leapfrog the growing pains that new oil and gas producers suffer all too often, including by ensuring that we achieve and maintain a globally competitive non-oil economy from the very outset,” he emphasised.

Dr Singh underscored the pivotal role Guyana’s Private Sector will play in the realisation of the country’s transformation, both at the domestic and international levels.
“While Government will maintain a supportive environment and will invest in supportive infrastructure, the bulk of the economic growth will be driven by private investment and Guyana abounds with opportunity today for the Private Sector,” the Minister stated.
To this end, he posited that the Islamic Corporation for the Development of the Private Sector (ICD), the Islamic Corporation for the Insurance of Investment and Export Credit (ICIEC), and International Islamic Trade Finance Corporation (ITFC) all have important mandates.
The Finance Minister added that Guyana looks forward to these Private Sector-oriented entities within the IsDB Group playing a demonstrably bigger role in Guyana, and other member countries, in the immediate future.
He also alluded to several policies put in place by Government in the past, which are being once again brought to the fore in the country’s fight against climate change such as the Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS).
“Even as we become an oil and gas producer, Guyana prides itself as a global leader in the fight against climate change. The preservation of our pristine rainforest over generations has enabled us to make a disproportionate contribution to the global climate effort today. In 2008, we published what we believe was the first LCDS for a developing country. On the basis of that strategy, we partnered in 2009 with Norway in the world’s third largest international forest partnership to create the capabilities needed to integrate Guyana’s forest climate services within international carbon and other markets,” the Senior Finance Minister further stressed.
On this note, he disclosed that the Government of Guyana is now working on a new and expanded LCDS which aims to ensure that Guyana’s standing forests are adequately remunerated for the global climate services they provide, adding that the expanded LCDS will also encompass the blue economy for the first time so that Guyana can also harness full benefit of its vast marine resources in a sustainable manner.
“Guyana stands ready to share with the IsDB family our experience with economic development along a low carbon trajectory, and to work with the Bank to build a stronger coalition around the critical environmental and climate issues of our time,” Dr Singh posited.
Further, Minister Singh also lauded the Bank’s Strategic Preparedness and Response Programme (SPRP), which provided a total of US$4.5 billion of support to help member countries contain, mitigate, and recover from COVID-19.
In fact, he told participants that the Dr Irfaan Ali-led Guyana Government has requested the reprogramming of previously approved funds and programming of new resources to help Guyana strengthen its capacity to respond to any future extreme climatic events and to build more resilient infrastructure. He said discussions are ongoing with the Bank on this with the aim of ensuring that this support is delivered in the shortest possible time.
“We are also engaged in discussions with the Bank on several transformative projects, aimed at reinforcing our resilience and harnessing our untapped economic potential, particularly in the non-oil sector. We have already initiated discussions on many projects in the transport infrastructure sector with the Bank, including farm-to-market roads, which will open new arable land. Here again, timely conclusion of these discussions will help accelerate realisation of the outcomes targeted by these critical interventions,” the Senior Finance Minister stated as he reaffirmed Guyana’s commitment to working closely with the Bank and fellow members to advance economic development in all the countries.
The IsDB Group’s 2021 Annual Group Meetings, which also saw the presence of His Excellency Sardor Umurzakov, Chairman of the IsDB’s Board of Governors, along with other high-level officials from around the world, are expected to wrap up today.
On the side lines of the meetings, Minister Singh has been engaged in a series of discussions with officials from other countries including Kuwait, Qatar and Sierra Leone.