Dear Editor
While growing plantain and making plantain chips would replace imported plantain chips and save a little foreign currency it would not replace the foreign currency lost through the “downsizing” of Guyana’s sugar industry.
While the APNU+AFC Government of President David Granger focuses on saving foreign exchange, it is not focused on gaining foreign currency.
This Government has not really thought about Guyana’s oil potential.
It has been nearly three years now since oil was discovered offshore Guyana, and we have only had one major investment forum to attract investors to Guyana.
Clearly, what the Government can do is to market Guyana’s oil potential a bit better, by travelling abroad to sensitise most of the major oil producing countries to our oil potential — which it has not done.
It is good that we have oil, but if we are not going to market and sell the oil, but wait for foreigners to do it for us, then Guyana would remain underdeveloped.
It is not just about oil. It is about using the oil discovery to market our other industries, like rice, sugar, bauxite, gold, fisheries, timber, etc. It is about marketing Guyana’s potential.
Yours faithfully
Sean Ori
