This week, we shall conclude the series by focusing on how special, new, emerging industries can help economic growth.
Providing direct support to special industries
Building an enabling business environment that would support diversification is a prerequisite for success. All I have observed from the Granger Administration since it came to office three years ago is more talk but little action with it comes to the question of diversification and incubating the new, emerging economy. As an example, let us reflect on the opportunities lost at the now-defunct Wales Sugar Estate (WSE).
In February 2016, in a newspaper interview, Agriculture Minister Noel Holder defended the move to close the WSE as the “beginning of a process to resuscitate the sugar industry”, and he “assured the nation that there are plans in place to cushion the impact of this decision.” On May 19, 2018, he outlined his plans to use the WSE to “rebrand and revitalise the sugar industry”. His plans were focused on converting WSE into a “national processor of dairy products, fruit juices and rice production”. By the end of 2016, the Minister expressed his satisfaction with the progress being made to convert the estate into a “model agricultural producer, so that other areas of the sugar industry can benefit from this diversification model”.
Unfortunately, nothing the Minister said was the truth, since the hoax was exposed by February 2018. The entire West Bank Demerara area was rendered into an economic dead zone. Very little economic life was injected into the area, and very few social cushions were put in place to cater for the situation on the ground. Yet the Minister, who convincingly failed the nation, kept his job. The entire diversification plan for the former sugar land at Wales never fired-up!
What is unquestionably inside Team Granger is a dire absence of strategic thinkers at the highest levels, especially in the Cabinet. These people have underserved the nation again and again within those three short years, by failing to exercise thoughtful deliberation on the big issues. Every day, there is another crisis that exposes how ill- equipped they are at understanding, measuring, and making decisions on the big national development issues.
The actions in the sugar industry did not need to be such a “roll of the dice” situation. It could have been the moment to use the sugar land to unleash an assortment of emerging industries in the West Demerara area, to rapidly create hundreds of new jobs. First off, why was the Wales Sugar Estate not converted to an ethanol plant, to add to what was in the Guyoil tanks? Why was the area not opened as a tax-free technology corridor for new BPO and ICT service operations using talent sourced from nations like Mexico and India, to take the Guyanese people to the next level? Why were private investors not invited to build new pharmaceutical plants, and all doors broken down to give life to these investments, like tax-holidays, cheap land, subsidised electricity for the first year, free training support from UG, and so on? Can you imagine Guyana being the pharmaceutical hub of the Caribbean region using Indian and Cuban technology? These things are possible.
Why have the senior people in the Granger Government not pondered on these basic questions when they were mulling over the WSE issue?
1. What can Guyana do better with this land in the current market?
2. What are the best strategic assets of the WSE (the river, the land, the people), and how and where can we make the best use of them?
3. What strategic assets are missing, but are needed to succeed in the new market? (Technicians from India, Mexico, China; money and so on)
4. Can we use the WSE land to catch up with, or leapfrog, the competitors at their own game?
5. Since Guyana was missing several of the critical factors for success in the new, emerging markets (ICT, biotechnology, green technology, etc.), could the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in partnership with the private sector, not act as the facilitators to incentivise international players to come and partner with the locals?
National development will never be an easy game, but for it to succeed, it requires strategic thinkers who are prepared to work hard, study their cards carefully, engage partners, and make decisions. These are the critical missing ingredients in Team Granger, and until and unless they buy-in the right skills, which are clearly missing from Team Granger, Guyana is doomed! The debate on Al Jazeera on Guyana oil and gas industry in July 2018 exposed this reality loud and clear.
