Finance Min. team lauded for 'well put together' 2004 budget
by Mark Ramotar
Guyana Chronicle
April 3, 2004
PRESIDENT Bharrat Jagdeo has publicly congratulated his Finance Minister and the 2004 budget team for "coming up" with "a well put-together" National Budget for this year, one which he believes sets the tone for a massive capital programme that entails billions of dollars to be spent on improving the social sectors in this country.
According to the Guyanese Head-of-State, the mammoth $75.6B budget for this year takes full cognizant of Guyana's immediate situation and also looks to the future in a committed way with the ultimate aim of enhancing the infrastructural development of Guyana and enhance the standard of living of its citizens.
The 2004 Budget, the largest ever in the history of Guyana, was presented in the National Assembly last Monday by Finance Minister, Saisnarine Kowlessar under the theme 'Investing for Sustained Economic Growth and Enhanced Social Development'.
Speaking at a news conference in the Cabinet Room at the Presidential Secretariat in Georgetown yesterday, Mr. Jagdeo said the budget emphasized some themes that have been recurrent in previous budgets presented by the People's Progressive Party Civic (PPP/C) administration since 1992 - that is, a strong emphasis on the social sectors.
"Just look across the landscape and you will see what is happening in Guyana," Mr. Jagdeo urged as he alluded to the ongoing massive infrastructural works being undertaken in several sectors.
In this regard, he disclosed that the Government have about US$400M (approximately Gy$90 billion) in 'foreign funded money' at its disposal at the moment and this huge sum of money will be spent on developmental works over the next few years ranging from roads, bridges, water, sewerage, education and housing, among others.
The President pointed out that this US$400M are just the 'foreign funded' projects and excludes all locally funded capital projects that are on stream or will start soon.
President Jagdeo noted, too, that some US$28M in contracts are in the pipeline to be awarded to upgrade the squatter settlements in Guyana, of which a significant sum will be spent on the Sophia squatting area.
"If you look at the allocations to the social sectors this year you will see that the tradition have been maintained with over 32% of the budget going into the provision of social services," he told reporters.
The President, however, lamented the fact that many people do not appreciate what it means to allocate the equivalent of 9.4% of your Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to Education.
Always a strong advocate that education is probably the best way of getting out of poverty, President Jagdeo alluded to the importance this sector is given in his government's whole developmental agenda for the people of Guyana. In this regard, he noted that the Government has increased spending in this sector from 8.4 percent of GDP or $12.1 Billion in 2003 to 9.4 percent of GDP or $14.5 Billion in 2004 with priority spending in the areas of curricular and pedagogical reforms, teacher training, recruitment, reducing overcrowding, improving facilities and their management, functional illiteracy among out-of-school youths and institutional strengthening.
"I don't think that any other country in the world today does the same thing, that is, allocating 9.4% of your GDP to education," the President contended.
"Some countries may have larger gross domestic product therefore they may be able to, on a per capita basis, allocate more resources but in terms of a share of their GDP to this important sector, I think our country ranks very, very high," he posited.
"When we got into office (1992), the country was spending $1B on education (and) from $1B we are now spending $14.5B today which shows our commitment to the education sector," he stated.
The President also noted that the Government has continued to increase allocations in key areas such as housing and water, health care and security. He also indicated that thousands of jobs will be created through the massive capital programme that has been announced in the budget.
President Jagdeo, in expressing congratulations to Minister Kowlessar and team which included Budget Director in the Finance Ministry, Dr. Ashni Singh and Budget Consultant, Mr. Winston Jordan, noted that in light of the circumstances Guyana faces and the regional and world situation, Kowlessar and his team came up with a 'well-thought-out' budget.
"Those who know about the process of putting together a budget would understand the complexities and difficulties and long hours of work that this process requires," asserted Mr. Jagdeo, himself a former Finance Minister.
The President, however, expressed disgust at some "frivolous comments" that he heard or read from "so-called analysts" which lead him to believe that "they don't appreciate the process of putting together a budget especially for a poor developing country".
"I've seen comments like the Government have borrowed US$800M since it assumed office (but) I've been saying that in spite of us borrowing over US$800M, the outstanding debt of this country has come down from US$2.1B to about US$1B (and) this is in spite of that borrowing," Mr. Jagdeo posited.
He noted, too, that of that US$800M, the government is still to spend about US$400M and these are resources still to be spent over the next few years.
"When the opposition makes this as a criticism then they have not been hearing what we have been saying all the while; yes we have been borrowing on concessional terms but what we have done is that we have reduced the stock of debt, we have reduced the concessionality on our debts today...and the debt servicing requirements have come down from 94% of revenue to about 20% of revenue...so I find it strange that this would be a serious criticism of the budget," he asserted.
Asked to give an assessment of his government's performance over the past three years since he was elected President in 2001, he said: "Overall, the past three years, although it wasn't easy and there were many problems, we've still seen the country moved forward and that's important for me because rebuilding from the lower base wouldn't happen overnight; it's a slow tedious process with one building block at a time and its even worst when you put up higher blocks there and someone kicks down one and throw it aside (and) we've had people who try to take off some of these blocks that we are putting up."
In presenting the budget Monday, Minister Kowlessar said the fiscal deficit remained within prudent limits, despite increases in public expenditure that were occasioned, in part, by higher spending in the social sectors and by the fight to repel the growing crime wave, while improved access to and better delivery of education and health care services were also attained in 2003.
Consistent with its theme, this year's Budget focuses on sustained economic growth and development and enhancing social development and addresses critical development problems such as identifying and removing bottlenecks and sources of vulnerabilities, as well as tackling longer term and structural issues; reinforcing macroeconomic fundamentals; retooling the economy to enhance competitiveness; supporting private investment initiatives; venturing into new growth activities; improving social and economic infrastructures; and enhancing human resources development to meet the demands of the expanding economy and job creation.