What has Govt done to diversify the production profile of Guyana?

If one were to read the Granger Manifesto from 2015, one would see that he declared, on Page 13 of that book of promises, that the “APNU+AFC will institute a macroeconomic policy framework that promotes externally- and internally-balanced outcomes, along with a more diversified economic structure, so as to ensure economic stability.”
Actually, Team Granger wrote a whole chapter devoted to “Production Transformation and Economic Diversification”; but if one were to check the records, not one of these transformative initiatives has been incubated after Team Granger has been 26 months in office. The 2017 Mid-Year Report produced by the Ministry of Finance confirms this statement of fact when it acknowledged that Guyana still has a “relatively undiversified production profile”.
Such a situation begs the question: What on earth was Team Granger doing over the last 26 months — jetting off to Texas while Guyana sinks in blackouts?
The evidence is there to illustrate that Team Granger’s members offered themselves various sizes of personal salary increases, including 50% increases for certain categories of ministers; but they had no money to pay the displaced sugar workers at Wales a small severance package.  They also squandered in excess of Gy billion over 20 horrible deals over these past 26 months; but they had no money to pay policemen, nurses and teachers a proper increase, to take them closer to a living wage.
One must not forget the showpiece of the looting machine, the Durban Park Parade Ground (now dubbed Granger Park), where some Gy0 million were leaked deliberately from that Gy.3 billion Ponzi scheme.  But when you thought these people had a cap on their financial recklessness, you can find even more evidence — in the budgets presented by Minister Jordan — that more than a billion dollars were spent on their personal executive travels overseas, and on funding their personal perks, like the Gy0,000 sweetheart rental for special ministers over these past 26 months.
So while this ‘Gang of 8’ in the PNC-led Granger regime is taking care of itself in Cadillac style, its members have failed resoundingly to do their job.  The outcome is that they have made very little progress in diversifying the economy.
But there are consequences for such policy paralysis.
In June 2017, the balance of payment (BoP) of the entire nation worsened from a surplus of US.1 million in the first half of 2016 to a deficit of US.1 million. Let me be absolutely clear: the BoP is a statement that summarizes the economic transactions that Guyana does with the rest of the world over a given period. So, moving from a surplus to a deficit clearly means that the world is drawing from our foreign reserves in the first half of 2017; thus the deficit.  Guess what would be the impact on the nation’s international reserves in 2017? Depletion!
If it were not for a US.9 million increase in rice exports in the first half of 2017, compared to the first half of 2016, the foreign reserves would have been less than US0 million in June 2017, which would have been the worst stock of foreign currency in a decade. Yet President Granger referred to the problems faced by the rice farmers in October 2015 — at his one and only press conference — as a “private arrangement”.  But it is these same private people, in their private arrangements, with a little help from the Granger Administration, who are now baling out this failing Government and saving the entire public sector, and by extension the nation as a whole.
This experience clearly indicates that President Granger has much to learn on how to manage the Guyanese nation, as he floats along in his clueless condition.
A major contributor to the weakening of the nation’s financial condition was the material decline in gold exports. Declared gold exports declined by US.3 million in the first half of 2017, compared to the first half of 2016.  That is a significant number; so significant that it almost equals all the foreign sales from the forestry sector. The foreign reserves are diving, and are not set to recover this year, because of poor gold, bauxite and sugar exports projected for 2017.  There goes the exchange rate again!
Many to whom I have spoken in the analyst community are amazed that the Granger Administration got so much so wrong so early.  Their entire transformational framework is, in reality, a far cry from what they had written in their manifesto.  This disparity between their words and their actions again begs another question: What was their intention all along — getting power using empty promises on the campaign trail, accentuated with gross untruths?
But do not worry about a thing, because Granger is going to bring the good life to you.  I THINK NOT!