Govt creating opportunities for population to grow wealth – Pres Ali

Noting that the policies and programmes being implemented by his government is ultimately aimed at wealth creation and growth for every Guyanese, on Thursday evening fired back at “propagandist messaging”, and highlighted the various ways in which the strategies rolled out by his administration within the last three years have transformed communities and positively impacted the lives of almost every citizen.
“The purpose of government is to invest and create the opportunity so that the population can grow wealth,” the Head of State outlined during a live broadcast to the nation.
“We are skillfully crafting a model that meets our social and economic transformation in a way that ensures what we call resilience in the framework…we cannot just say that we have projected finances in the future so that we are going to spend in a way that is not sustainable. So, we are creating a resilient approach to managing our finances; a careful and considerate approach to ensure that our current expenditure does not become bloated and to ensure that the capital investment itself is adding value and creating value to the population in general,” he explained.
Referencing the recent road network in the New Diamond Housing Scheme on the East Bank of Demerara (EBD), President Ali highlighted how the investments in that area have significantly increased the net present and future value of lands and properties there.
“The net present value of some of these properties would have increased by 25/30 per cent, some as much as 50 per cent, some areas more than 100 per cent…so, you have a public servant who would benefit from the 6.5 per cent increase this year, the total increase from a 2020 base is more than 24 per cent over the last number of years, that public servant…maybe at the low scale…might take home…$250,000…when you look at that person owning a low-income home that would have cost $6.5 million, and because of the investment in housing and the investment in infrastructure, the net value of that house now becomes $10 million.”
“We’re talking now about an increase in value immediately within one year of $4 million. From a salary perspective, that would take you 20 years to accumulate. So, wealth is not only built in salaries, wealth is built on how the net effect of the impact of policies and programmes.”
Explaining that when the net value of someone’s property increases, President Ali explained that “it means that your personal wealth also goes up.”
“Many people then capitalise on this…in a way in which they now realise the full financial potential of their property, they can use that money to invest in a small business, some buy a taxi, some buy a truck, and that is how you grow wealth, that is how the transformation is linked to wealth creation.”
President Ali explained that this is just a microscopic examination of the impact of government’s policies and programmes on someone’s lives, and noted that when all the other initiatives are taken into consideration, the benefits are tremendous.
“When you take the initiative of the grant for dialysis, when you look at the grant for people living with disabilities, when you look at the investment in the healthcare system, when you look at the grant for the school children, all of this is removing a direct expenditure from your income pool, which makes more disposal income available for you,” he explained.
“The removal of the more than 200 taxes, what has this done? …in an annualized way, it put back tens of millions of dollars in the pockets of people,” President Ali asserted, noting that if the taxes were not removed, any given household’s disposal income would have been less.
Referencing the Local Content legislation which prioritises Guyanese nationals and Guyanese companies in the procurement of goods and services, President Ali highlighted that a number of local businesses are benefitting from billions of dollars of revenue. “Tens of billions of dollars that are now flowing into the system that was never there two years ago…”
According to President Ali, every sector of the economy has similar ripple effects. “…in tourism, in agriculture…in warehousing, in logistics, in transportation, in shore base facilities, in engineering, in training…”
Moreover, he emphasised that every region of the country is experiencing some form of development, which is directly and indirectly benefiting the lives of citizens.
“When we build 1,000 homes in Region Ten, the wealth creation, the increase in the value of asset; when we go to build a new Linden-Soesdyke Highway, the road to Mabura, the new New Amsterdam Road, expanding the road in Region Three, all of this, what does it do? It increases the net present value and future value of the asset that surrounds infrastructure. And who benefits from that increase in asset value? It is the individuals, the families, the communities, who can go to the bank with a higher asset value,” the Head of State posited. (G11)