Dear Editor,
As someone who regularly engages in discussions on economics, I usually have to re-emphasise that scarcity or induced poverty is often a consequence of poor government regulation and policy. I have put together a broad sketch of some of the policies ‘my government’ would be implementing within the first year of our administration, to engage the public in discussion. These have for the most part been kept brief.
1: Water & Electricity: The Guyana Water Inc. (GWI) will be responsible for preparing and submitting information regarding unserved areas. GWI will also develop and implement a plan for addressing the availability of potable water. Concerns about electricity supply and cost will be addressed as a matter of urgency, with a more clinical approach to addressing needs and resource utilisation mechanisms.
2: Health & Education: The Ministries of Health & Education will be tasked with identifying weaknesses in their service delivery, and making proposals to address these weaknesses. For example, much more needs to be done to address the performance of students at the common entrance, or National Grade Six Assessment, examinations.
3: Public Servants’ Wages & Salaries: The wages and salaries of our public servants have taken a drubbing for in excess of two decades, and will be brought to the front burner immediately. Public Service Union (GPSU) leaders can therefore look forward to making proposals on public servants’ salaries, because I have some which I am confident will stir interest.
4: Rice & Sugar: Discussions will be held with representatives of the rice sector to address bottlenecks within the sector. Greater supervision will be made available to ensure rice farmers are fairly treated.
The problems in the sugar industry should have been addressed long ago, and will be brought to closure sooner than later. I intend to have sugar workers who left or were released from 2010, which I think is an appropriate cut-off point for inclusion. Failing any firm agreements which will involve the union regarding privatisation, I have already drafted some proposals which include the distribution of land to sugar workers along with a financial compensation package. The distribution of land will fall within a larger policy support framework for those receiving these lands.
5: Gold Mining: Within the gold mining sector, it is my opinion that in the absence of stronger policing systems, royalties and other punitive charges need to be reduced, to improve official gold declarations and encourage investment and job creation within the sector.
6: Investment, Job Creation & General Private Sector Matters: Foreign investors have the potential to significantly accelerate Guyana’s development prospects; and in this regard, GO-Invest will be further strengthened, with greater efforts being extended to marketing Guyana abroad, in an effort to attract investor attention.
A public/private panel will be set up to focus on local private sector concerns regarding investment, job creation, and general matters that concern private sector expansion. Also to be covered here is infrastructural development.
7: Taxation: It is public knowledge that I consider the recent applications of VAT in the 2017 budget ridiculous. These will be repealed if the current administration does not do so by 2020. Further efforts will be paid to seeing how VAT can be scaled back. Some mechanism will also be put in place to lower income taxes generally, and an investigation into the appropriateness of having a lower flat tax for businesses will be made.
General reduction in tax rates will follow increased Government revenues which are expected to flow from the policy matrix Government implements after consultations with various stakeholders. Reductions are also subject to infrastructural demands.
Yours faithfully,
Craig Sylvester
