President David Granger has now made it clear that the launching of three new towns for the Local Government Elections – another, Mahdia could not join them because of technical details – was not done merely for administrative efficiencies. In a speech to the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry within a week of those elections, he revealed it was a part of his administration’s strategic plan for the development of the country.
He postulated that each region must have one “capital town” with a specific mandate to become the nucleus of development for its region. There are now Mabaruma (Region One), Anna Regina (Region Two, Georgetown (Region Four), one will have to be chosen between New Amsterdam, Rose Hall and Corriverton (Region Six), Bartica (Region Seven), Mahdia (Region Eight), Lethem (Region Nine) and Linden (Region 10). The President suggested that possibly Parika (Region Three) and Fort Wellington (Region Five) might seek to attain township status.
The towns would now have to utilise the appurtenances of municipalities such as banks, industrial sites, hospitals, schools, etc to foster their own development and their regions – independent of central government. The question arises, however, as to how this development would be ignited and secondary how they would be kept viable. These are among the ambiguities that need to be cleared up. The President took pains to state later that the towns are “corporations”: “I think the municipalities should see themselves as corporations, encouraging business rather than just being administrators expecting subventions. They must examine ways of generating revenue and earning a profit.”
But what exactly does a town being treated as a “corporation” mean beyond it can conduct matters under its statutorily delegated mandate as a legal entity? Which is what they were always and were able to do. We can look at Anna Regina in Region Two, for instance, which was incorporated into a town with our attainment of Republican Status in 1970.
Anna Regina has a Bank, a market, an industrial site, mayoral office, etc, but it has been unable to foster development of the sort envisaged by the President in the 46 years it has been in existence as a “corporation”. Why?
The challenge for Anna Regina – and it will be for all the other towns apart from Georgetown – is they will be unable to garner the revenues necessary to become first, self-sustaining in development, then to spread that development into the surrounding areas. The most critical need would be to initiate some industries that would create employment in Anna Regina and its environs.
The President talked of Agro-processing as undertakings the new towns could foster. But what can Anna Regina offer to induce such businesses? Without the power, for instance, to offer tax incentives – which are still controlled by the Central Government – the officials of the town are left with just moral importunings.
Another, even more pertinent lack of power is the inability to generate loans for the needed industrial development. In Anna Regina, for instance, the local branches of the three national Banks each have over billion in deposits garnered from Essequibians but lend a mere fraction of that in the entire Region Two, much less Anna Regina. If the Towns were given the power to insist that a certain percentage of their deposits must be reinvested locally this would go a far way in generating the development the President hopes for. As it is the government takes the pressure off the banks from lending by issuing Treasury Bills because there is “too much liquidity” in the system.
The point we wish to make is that it would appear the government wants to give the new towns baskets to fetch water. That is, it wants to relieve itself from being responsible for regional development yet will not devolve the powers to the towns really necessary for that to be achieved.
