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‘No link between growth in GDP and prosperous lives for Guyanese’—Int’l Lawyer, Melinda Janki   Sep 02, 2024 News By: Davina Bagot Kaieteur News – Guyana’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has been on a springboard over the past four years, charged heavily by the burgeoning petroleum sector. With massive double-digit growth being recorded, the small South American nation has emerged as the fastest growing economy, creating the illusion of not only a wealthy country, but prosperous population. International award-winning Lawyer, Melinda Janki Award-winning Guyanese International Lawyer, Melinda Janki has however dispelled the link between the country’s growth in GDP and improvement in the lives of its citizens.  During a webinar on Sunday ‘Guyana’s oil-boom or blowout?’ Janki who has been successful in litigations challenging the oil and gas operations locally painted a grim picture of the country’s reality as an oil producer. She said, “Most of you have heard the various claims that Guyana is undergoing an economic boom, that Guyana is getting rich, that Guyanese are becoming more prosperous and these claims are based almost entirely based on Guyana’s Gross Domestic Product.” She pointed out that the World Bank in 2022 said Guyana’s GDP increased by 62%, while the Bank of Guyana in 2023 reported growth in GDP by 33%. More recently, Janki said President Irfaan Ali touted a 49.7% growth in GDP during the first half of 2024. The lawyer said: “this sounds very impressive but what does it mean? The (International Monetary Fund) IMF says GDP just measures the monetary value of final goods and services produced in a country, so that includes Guyana’s oil.” She was keen to note that most of the GDP growth was driven by the oil sector. “In 2022, the IMF, looking at the World Bank’s figures of growth said actually the oil bit grew by 124%. That’s not that surprising because Guyana really didn’t start producing any oil until December 2019, so Guyana is starting from a very low place,” the Lawyer reasoned. Janki noted that growth in the non-oil GDP that year was around 11% which continues presently as confirmed by the Bank of Guyana, which stated in a 2023 Report that the oil and gas sector continues to be the major contributor to GDP growth. “But that doesn’t mean that Guyana is better off economically. Why? The GDP includes Guyana’s oil production, but Guyana’s oil production doesn’t go to Guyana. Nearly 90% of the oil production goes to three foreign companies- Exxon, Hess and CNOOC-they take it, but it counts as part of Guyana’s GDP.” In explaining the circumstances that allowed for this unbalance in the equation, she referenced the lopsided contract signed between the Government of Guyana and Exxon in 2016. That arrangement allows Exxon, the operator of the Stabroek Block, to deduct 75% of oil produced each month to repay the companies for its investment. The remaining 25% is shared equally with Guyana as profits. The country also receives 2% of all petroleum produced and sold as royalty; this is paid on a quarterly basis. Janki told the almost 100 participants of the online event that oil has not made Guyana better off, in fact, reports indicate soaring food prices, forcing more people to eat from garbage cans. “The Bank of Guyana says inflation has gone up, largely driven by the increase in food prices, there are people eating out of garbage cans…you see more people sleeping on the streets,” the Lawyer argued. On Sunday, Kaieteur News reported that oil production in the Stabroek Block catapulted Guyana’s GDP growth to a staggering 49.7% in the first six months of 2024. The Government of Guyana’s Mid-Year report also emphasized a 12.6% growth in the country’s non-oil GDP between January and June this year, despite challenges in a number of traditional sectors. Janki however argued that even the growth in non-oil GDP is linked to the petroleum industry, citing the construction sector as an example. This sector recorded a 43.7% growth during the first half of 2024, with sand and stone declarations estimated to have grown by 46.6% and 73.4%, respectively. Related Similar Articles

Guyana’s debt surges past US$5B – Mid-Year Report Sep 02, 2024 News – external debt projected to increase from U$1.9B to US$2.8B by the end of the year Kaieteur News – Guyana’s total debt has risen sharply, exceeding US$5 billion by mid-2024, according to the Ministry of Finance’s Mid-Year Report. As of June 2024, the country’s debt stood at US$5,063.3 million, up from US$4,508.8 million at the end of December 2023. Senior Minister within the Office of the President, Dr. Ashni Singh The report highlights that Guyana’s public debt remains sustainable and is currently subject to a moderate risk of debt distress. The government said that it has maintained a focus on securing development financing under prudent cost and risk parameters. “At the end of the first half of this year, Guyana’s stock of Total Public and Publicly Guaranteed (PPG) debt amounted to US$5,063.3 million, reflecting positive net flows from both external and domestic creditors,” the report states. As of the end of June 2024, external PPG debt totaled US$1,924.2 million. The ministry stated that this increase is attributed to positive net flows from multilateral creditors such as the World Bank’s International Development Association and the Caribbean Development Bank, as well as from bilateral creditors including China, Canada, India, and UK Export Finance. These funds support various social and infrastructural projects. Multilateral creditors hold the largest share of external PPG debt at 63.4%, followed by bilateral creditors at 35.1%, and private creditors at 1.5%.  Notably, the report states that the external PPG debt stock is projected to grow to US$2,832.3 million by the end of 2024, driven by expected continued inflows from both bilateral and multilateral sources. It was disclosed that external disbursements reached US$196.8 million in the first half of 2024, a 94.6% increase from the same period in the previous year. This surge is largely due to increased funding from bilateral creditors, which amounted to US$157.9 million, reflecting a 127.5% rise compared to the first half of 2023. Key projects funded include a social protection initiative by Canada, the East Coast Demerara Road Improvement Project Phase 2, and the Regional Hospitals Project, financed by China, along with several projects funded by the India EXIM Bank. Moreover, domestic PPG stood at US$3,139 million at the end of June reflecting some US$2,226.2 million in treasury bills based on the issuance of new fiscal instruments.  Total PPG debt service payments for the first half of 2024 amounted to US$85.2 million, a 7.7% decrease compared to the same period in 2023. This decline is primarily due to a 33.3% reduction in domestic debt service payments, from US$42.2 million in the first half of 2023, to US$28.2 million in the first half of 2024. “The contraction in domestic PPG debt service payments was in turn due to the completion, in the previous year, of repayments under a government guaranteed bond issued by the National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited (NICIL) in 2018 but transferred to the books of Central Government in 2020,” it was stated. Conversely, external PPG debt service payments increased by 13.8%, rising from US$50.1 million to US$57 million, driven by higher payments to both bilateral and multilateral creditors. Additionally, earlier this year the government got the green light to increase the ceilings on both domestic and external debt.  The domestic public debt ceiling has been increased to $1.5 trillion, up from $750 billion from its last revision. Meanwhile, a new external borrowing ceiling of $1.5 trillion has been approved, after its last increase to $900 billion. This move was part of a broader financial strategy to increase the nation’s capacity, in order to finance its $1.146 trillion 2024 budget, including several large-scale infrastructure projects. To access the Mid-Year Report 2024, click here: https://finance.gov.gy/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Mid-Year-Report-2024.pdf Related Similar Articles

Man killed during row at wedding house   Sep 02, 2024 News Kaieteur News – A 24-year-old welder was stabbed to death on Saturday evening during an argument in a wedding house at Lust-en-Rust, West Bank Demerara (WBD). Police identify the dead man as Allie Mark Augustine of Lot 28 Lust-en-Rust, WBD. Investigations revealed that the incident occurred around 22:50hrs when an argument broke out between Augustine and some villagers over an old grievance. The argument quickly escalated into a scuffle and as a result, Augustine received one stab wound under his arm pit. Augustine then ran a short distance and collapsed in a yard. Upon seeing Augustine in an unconscious state, police were summoned to the scene. The body was removed and escorted to West Demerara Regional Hospital where Augustine was pronounced dead on arrival. The body is at the Ezekiel Funeral Home awaiting a post-mortem examination. Police revealed that several persons were questioned and four persons were arrested subsequently. Related Similar Articles

T20 Cricket is a batsman’s game Sep 02, 2024 Dem Boys Seh, Features / Columnists Kaieteur News – T20 cricket is a game where the bowlers are the whipping horses, and where  the batsmen swing their heavy bats like Thor’s hammer. Let’s face it: in T20, bowlers have become glorified ball-fetchers. How about changing things to give the bowlers a better chance? With shorter boundaries and limiting field restrictions to the first four overs. Right now, bowlers don’t stand a chance. Imagine where bowlers have a fighting chance. First off, how about extending the boundaries by about 5 meters? Yes, you heard me right—let’s give our dear fielders a chance to do more than just wave as the ball sails into the crowd. With a few extra meters, fielders might actually catch a ball or two on the boundary, and bowlers might even get a wicket without praying for a miracle. Who knows? We might even see bowlers smile again! And what’s with these heavy bats? It’s like the batsmen are wielding tree trunks. These things are designed to send the ball not just over the boundary but into the next country. If a batsman sneezes, it’s a six. Let’s get serious about bat regulations. Outlaw those outrageously heavy bats! If batsmen want to hit sixes, let them do it the old-fashioned way—with skill, not with more than a little help from heavy bats. Now, let’s talk about the power play. Six overs of unmitigated carnage, where bowlers are treated like piñatas at a children’s party. How about limiting this massacre to just four overs? This would give bowlers a chance to bowl without feeling like they’re in the middle of a batting practice session. At least, for the remaining 16 overs, bowlers can have a say, even if it’s a whisper. So, let’s stop pretending that T20 is fair. Let’s extend those boundaries, trim those bats, and cut the power play down to size. After all, bowlers deserve to play cricket too, not just play the part of the victim in this tragic comedy. Talk half. Leff half! Related Similar Articles

Palliatives will not work Sep 02, 2024 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom Peeping tom… Kaieteur News – The Ministry of Education has opted for a predictable response to a crisis of its own making. It has decided to double down on the existing strategy, yet more vigorously. The dismal decline in the pass rates for Mathematics at the CSEC examinations from 34% in 2023 to 31% this year in Guyana, and a broader regional slide from 43% to 35%, screams for a radical rethinking of educational policy. The numbers don’t lie: Guyana is facing a severe crisis in education, evidenced by the fact that two out of every three students sitting for the CSEC examinations are failing to matriculate. This alarming statistics not only highlights the dire state of our educational system but also raises significant concerns about the broader social and economic implications. Could this pervasive academic underachievement be a key factor explaining why youth unemployment has remained stubbornly high for many years? A failure to matriculate means that a vast majority of our young people are entering the job market without the necessary qualifications or skills, making it difficult for them to secure stable employment or pursue higher education. This, in turn, perpetuates a cycle of poverty and disenfranchisement, undermining the country’s efforts to build a skilled workforce and develop a thriving economy. If we are to tackle youth unemployment effectively, addressing the root causes of this educational crisis must become an urgent priority. The poor rate of Mathematics passes is not only a barrier to employment opportunities for our youth but also significantly limits the pool of candidates eligible to enter the teaching profession. With a large majority of students failing to matriculate in Mathematics, the number of individuals who can qualify to teach this critical subject diminishes. Yet, the Ministry, like a fiddling Nero, seems content to pour gasoline on a blazing fire, prescribing an additional dollop of instructional hours as the magic potion to arrest this alarming trend. Let us be clear: the imposition of four hours minimum of Mathematics each week, scheduled in the hallowed hours of the morning when young minds are presumably at their zenith, is an empty gesture. It ignores the inconvenient truth that a rot in mathematical education begins long before entrance to secondary schools. The National Grade Six Assessment results, with a mere four out of every ten students passing Mathematics, unearth a foundational flaw. What future, pray tell, can a child have in secondary mathematics if their primary education has been neglected? It is tantamount to expecting a house built on sand to withstand a hurricane. The Ministry’s measures, laser-focused on secondary education, miss the glaring reality that our secondary schools are inundated with students whose mathematical foundation is more quicksand than bedrock. Such students stumble into secondary schools unequipped, and rather than the system providing a ladder out of the mire, it seems intent on digging a deeper pit. Secondary schools are not designed to compensate for the deficiencies born of inadequate primary education. And yet that is precisely what is expected. The Ministry’s strategy fails to grapple with the stark question of teacher competence. To paraphrase, no army can win a battle if it is armed only with blunt swords and fatigued soldiers. If teachers, themselves, are under-trained or ill-qualified, no amount of instructional hours will compensate for their lack of expertise. A teacher with only a CSEC pass in Mathematics is ill-suited to the task of guiding students through the rigors of CSEC exams. The Ministry ought to be asking itself how many of its educators hold qualifications beyond the very level they are tasked with teaching. If our teachers lack the requisite CAPE-level understanding of Mathematics, they have been set up to fail, and by extension, so have our students. What is needed is not a knee-jerk reaction, but a thoughtful, comprehensive study into the origins of this malaise. We must unearth whether the crux of the issue lies in the primary schooling system, the quality of teacher training, or an attitude towards the subject. Only with a diagnosis as precise as a surgeon’s scalpel can we prescribe the correct remedy. Throwing more hours at the problem, without ensuring that those hours are filled with quality teaching, is akin to putting a band-aid on a bullet wound. The Ministry of Education must cease its tinkering around the edges and face the grim reality: our education sector is in crisis, and only a systemic overhaul, grounded in empirical understanding, will salvage it. The time for palliatives has passed; now is the hour for a revolution in thought and action, lest we condemn yet another generation to mathematical mediocrity. (The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper.) Related Similar Articles

Oil has embittered and divided Guyana even more Sep 02, 2024 Features / Columnists, News, The GHK Lall Column Kaieteur News – Former US President Barack Obama rolled backed time to rollout one his sparkling deliveries for the Democratic National Convention on Tuesday night. He is always good for a glorious homerun, isn’t he?  “I don’t want to live in a country that’s bitter and divided.”  Me too!  And for the edification of all Guyanese, including President Ali and former president Jagdeo, if my ‘Me too’ cause must be a one-man movement, then let it be.  Candidly, I don’t think that Presidents Ali and Jagdeo have any political use for a Guyana that’s not bitter and divided.  I think that a country that’s not bitter and divided has no value for them, who they are inside. These two less-than-stellar Guyanese top dogs, their surrogates, and the rest of Guyana can interpret what I just placed in the public domain anyhow they wish. But scarcely an opportunity passes without it being seized to deepen the bitterness, wring wider the already yawning divide.  Test 1: when was the last time either Dr. Ali or Dr. Jagdeo spoke anywhere on any issue without a divisive diatribe against the PNC featuring prominently? National leaders in an era of great new wealth do not connive and deliver what favours a close few, mainly of a particular hue, while distancing from the rest, contemptuously dismissing them to fend for themselves.  I insist that what Drs. Ali and Jagdeo have lavishly doled out to some Guyanese (contractor class, sugar class, corrupt and connected class, among other mostly crooked classes) have wrenched this country farther apart in its season of once unimagined bounties. Those classes are the only ones that benefit immensely from the newfound bonanza.  This is while the bulk of Guyanese of all colours are left running on empty and forced to live in agony.  They scratch out a lousy existence, while favoured neighbours and compatriots live the good life.  I contend that this is the perfect recipe enriched with bitter and divisive ingredients that has become the national stew. So, a great many Guyanese sizzle and simmer at high heat.  Make no mistake: bitter and divided is today’s Guyana.  I assert that rushing belatedly to handout contracts to the Indigenous community is what leaves that population of originals bitter and divided.  Though part of the local political culture, pittances are plasters that paste for a time but don’t represent authentic leadership prowess.  If President Ali doesn’t know that, then I respectfully recommend that he seeks an enhancement of his education at any institution of learning that would help him. Should those doors be shut, then the president should seek his educational improvements from Guyana’s school of life.  There is a world of learning from the daily struggles of Guyanese in that 24/7/366 classroom of instruction. When the president and Vice President are always inseparably, irreversibly, fixated on the past (more later), what embitters more and divides more, then that Guyana can only be a country that is of the same substances.  To President Obama, I say thanks, bro for that Yo Yo Ma moment of magic in Chicago.  When President and VP can only rail and remind about the PNC, then they are not yet about the soothing and unifying leadership that this country so sorely needs.  How does burning the PNC in daily effigies heal this hurting country, Mr. President, Mr. VP?  Even if (if) the PNC is the sole demonic political presence in Guyana, how does that knit and mend a country that is made up of its blood brothers and sisters?  I invite enlightenment on any smidgen of healing power in what Presidents Ali and Jagdeo have been mainly about. President Ali has made a precarious living with his clever construction of ‘One Guyana.’  One Guyana for whom, Mr. President?  Certainly, not for Guyanese teachers.  One Guyana made up of what kind of people in the local demographics, Mr. President?  Most definitely, it cannot be for the people of Mocha so callously bulldozed out of their homes, the true reasons for which are now beginning to seep out.  I want one Guyanese to tell this Guyanese how that is knitting and healing and not embittering and dividing.  There is fairness and truth, then there are these calumnies that stand as the inarguable facts of Guyana’s many injustices.  I continue with President Ali a moment longer: One Guyana, I hear loud and clear, sir.  But why not for public servants calling and crying for a livable wage in the richest country in the world?  Why does One Guyana mean the front door for some and the backdoor for most?  How can One Guyana inspire when some citizens are compelled to live on their knees with their hands outstretched.  When there are Guyanese reduced to begging for a fair wage, there is nothing about any One Guyana vision.  It cannot be about oneness.  Because that vision is so blindingly biased it says so much.  Only a certain type of citizen could feel comfortable believing that mantra, what is a sound bite for the gallery of diehards. Bitter and divided, Guyana is.  Next year will prove how intensive, how extensive. (The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper.) Related Similar Articles

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