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No theme or inspiration
Editorial
At a time of economic depression when one is looking for positive measures and imaginative ideas the 1999 budget presentation was a disappointment. Giving the impression of being carelessly and hastily prepared (there are typographical errors and obvious omissions) the budget speech is bereft of new ideas and even the few concessions to business are not in place but are promises to be implemented. As the report card in the budget review of Messrs Ram and McRae, chartered accountants, has shown, many of the measures promised in the 1998 budget were never implemented. They turned out to be empty promises. Some idea of what is involved in going after new investment can be found in the letter of Mr Hamley Case in our Sunday paper. There Mr Case describes a high-powered investment czar with a detailed investment package that contains incentives comparable to or better than those in the region who both does his best to encourage investment here and sets out to market Guyana at international conferences. Such a person must be an experienced businessman (or woman) who has the power to make decisions to help investors find land, to let them quickly know exactly where they stand. He must not be hamstrung by a bureaucracy. As the Tourism and Hospitality Association of Guyana (THAG) recently reminded us despite several years of pushing they have made no headway. The measures announced for tourism in the budget are yet another promise for the future. The speech made by President Janet Jagan at the Annual Caribbean/Latin America Action Conference in Miami in December last year had led many to hope that at last there was a sea change in the government and they were serious about new investment. She had said: "We have the will, and appropriate conditions now present themselves for us to seek a new and genuine partnership with private capital - local and foreign - since we lack the necessary resources to propel us forward by ourselves. And this is not a short term goal, it is a long term commitment to which there is no alternative." Perhaps the problem is that there is no one at the highest level in the ruling party with any business experience. They genuinely do not know what is required to go after and secure investment. Mr Case has revealed the run around he has had. The story can be replicated many times. There is just no high level person who deals effectively and quickly with potential investors, local or foreign. The budget should have addressed this major structural deficiency. It did not. Indeed it failed to address nearly all the lengthy proposals submitted by the Private Sector Commission in a memorandum on the 10th February, 1999, which included investment allowances for plant and machinery, export allowances and specific requests for the forestry industry and the rice industry. Growth is essential. Business has been under pressure for some time. A new momentum is required. This will require energy, imagination and hard work. The budget does not point us in this direction. There is some hope that the revised National Development Strategy could be ready in the next two months. Perhaps that document, which will hopefully be broadly consensual, can provide the impetus for new ideas to take us forward.
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