National Development Strategy
Editorial
The revised home grown National Development Strategy will be, one hopes, a landmark in our progress towards a clearer vision of the possibilities for economic development and an outline of the way ahead. Those connected with it say the first draft could be ready for circulation by the end of June and early previews of the work already done are enthusiastic about its quality. This ambitious project aims at nothing less than setting priorities for economic and social development policies. It is based on an analysis of the problems and prospects in all sectors of the economy and in areas like health and education. The Strategy will also look at the broader macroeconomic issues like the debt problem, trends in the international economy that can affect our exports and development of our capital market. It will consider transport development, the energy sector and water management and flood control. The final report will be tabled in the National Assembly. The intention of the group who come from a wide spectrum in the society and are not activists of any political party is to present a strategy which is rigorous and specific enough to be implemented by any government. At the very least, this report will raise the quality of the economic debate in the society considerably. At the moment, as is clear from the recent budget and the debate on it, most economic discussion is entirely ad hoc, there is no broader view of what is needed or possible. One must hope that the political parties and other relevant groups will take the trouble to read the draft report when it is circulated, and to give a response. It will be a substantial document (the first draft comprised six volumes) and perhaps these organisations should appoint committees to digest the report and prepare a briefing on the key issues. A document of this kind will be of great service to all the political and civic groups. It can serve, apart from anything else, as a reference point for discussion of a wide variety of topics. It will open up new perspectives and can become a basic document that will inform public debates. It will, of course, require updating as time goes by. One criticism of the first draft was that it did not deal adequately with the critical bottleneck of the lack of skilled and experienced human resources to help implement the strategy at technical and bureaucratic levels. This is a major gap without which the document would be in real danger of being primarily of academic interest. The new group should devote a chapter to identifying the meeans that will be used to recruit crucial staff and to pay them adequate salaries commensurate with their skills. Can overseas Guyanese be induced to return?
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