They are dismantling the very people, system that are keeping this economy afloat

Dear Editor,
It is official: Guyana is now a backward and bankrupt place, despite all desperate measures being put in place by its desperate operators to salvage it. I make mention of the announced plan by the regime to force seizure of all dealers in foreign money.
The Chronicle reports that, “The Authorities are clamping down on the rampant acceptance, especially of city businesses, of foreign currency as a payment for goods.” The article further states, “The Bank of Guyana notes with some concern that some businesses are accepting foreign currency for the purpose of settling payments for transactions, instead of Guyana dollars.” In this regard, there is a promise of retaliation by the Central Bank in the form of surprise raids made to seize the foreign dollars from those businesses, as well as from the private traders themselves.
The targeted traders are the Cubans, who are doing brisk business here, buying up merchandise on a wholesale basis to take back to their home country. The preferred currency or cash transaction is the US dollar, of which the state is in dire need.
The Government contends that the hard currency being cashed should flow in a more direct way to the national bank than it is at the present moment. Seeing “Jordan’s Treasury” is hard pressed for that “almighty” US dollar, the only solution he can come up with is to resuscitate that draconian law which states that all foreign monies entering this country are the property of the state, and as such should be subject to state regulation, so lay hold of it by taxation.
Wrong! Burnham tried that, and it brought us as a nation to our knees. It never worked then, and there is no way, shape, or form that it is going to work now.
Now, looking at it from that perspective seems good on paper; the law is the law and it must be respected, but what Jordan is not telling the nation is that this law will do one, if not both of the following: drive the foreign currency traders underground, or drive them out of Guyana altogether.
The trader might very well take his trade elsewhere, like going to Margarita, where trading is freer than what obtains here. If the Cubans should ever contemplate that move, then it would be hell on earth for us here in this part of the globe.  The Cuban traders are a Godsend to us here in Guyana, and if Jordan is sensible, he would not interfere with that arrangement.
From experience, whenever a state takes that highhanded, ultra-strict control of the movement of foreign monies within its jurisdiction, the end result is quite the painful opposite of what had been intended. Taking complete control would also expose the Cubans to all forms of atrocities, such as bare them forth to the ubiquitous “shoot and rob” bandits that are so rampant in Georgetown.
Jordan needs to remove his head from where it is, and create a climate for foreign investment, so that foreign currency can flow in copious supply into the economy. He needs to initiate fiscal measures like those of the PPP/C Government, where foreign companies were eager to set up bases here, and where our country became a success story.
That is not forthcoming at the present, and we are going down the road of becoming a pariah state again. With sugar almost dead, rice limping along, mining and forestry contracting by the day, no foreign money is flowing into the national coffers, so Jordan is at his wits’ end to manage.
Finally, the Government needs to take a major part of the blame, because it is the chief culprit responsible for the depletion of foreign reserves. Heavy and excessive borrowing from Central Bank has seen the drying up of reserves there, and no amount of patchwork would change that situation.
But, like I said in the opening paragraph, it is desperation time in this country, and the only way this Finance Minister sees out of it is to add more tax. But no amount of taxation can stem the tide of a failing economy.
This desperation code came into effect as a result of Government’s lack of wherewithal to manage the economy, hence its mad rush to get money any which way. It is a frightening place to be, because our country is going nowhere, and as a direct consequence, is doomed to failure.

Respectfully,
Neil Adams