Georgetown : Guyana received a payment of Guy $8 billion from Norway this week, one billion more than last year’s payment. This brings the total sum received from Norway to $38 billion. This announcement was made lastevening by President Donald Ramotar during a televised address to the nation.
“All Guyanese should feel proud of the vote in confidence expressed by Norway in announcing that they are willing to pursue a second agreement up to 2020, a policy that only the PPP/C supports in Guyana. And all Guyanese should feel proud that we have earned the most money from a forest partnership in the world, after Brazil, money that is being directly spent on the people.”
Explaining that this was possible because of the Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS), the president said, “The LCDS is about earning real money that is being spent on addressing serious problems faced by normal Guyanese. That’s where all the money, including the $8 billion received today, will be spent. The LCDS is about fixing the drainage systems in your coastal neighbourhood to ensure that your yard will not be flooded. The LCDS is about making sure that the dry regions of our country have sufficient water all-year round. The LCDS is also about helping farmers to earn more money, about providing cheap electricity for everyone, about stopping the waste problem and about allowing your children to get the highest level of education right here in Guyana.”
The Head of State highlighted the benefits of the money Guyana has received, explaining that the country has now deployed US$120 million into projects, which are enabling the rehabilitation of Cunha canal that will protect Georgetown, and the communities and farms along the Mahaica River from floods.
“Using money earned under the LCDS, the government has also been working with local financial institutions to create hundreds of low carbon jobs. The LCDS has supported eco-tourism operators in several regions, which is now attracting more and more tourists to Guyana. The LCDS has also supported hundreds of Amerindian villages in preparing their community development plans, which will help to generate new job opportunities in the hinterland,” he stated.
Guyana has been the fastest growing country in the Caribbean over the past five years, and by 2016 it is projected to be an upper middle income country, but for the president, development means even more than that. “To me development means that we can live in a better Guyana, and leave an even better country for our children. To me, development is about listening and understanding the unique problems that Guyanese face in their everyday lives – no matter where we live or what we do for a living. And most importantly, development means coming up with solutions to these difficult problems.”
Saying that fixing complex problems takes investment, he said that’s why innovative technical and financial solutions to problems that many claim are impossible for a small country like Guyana to solve have to be brought to the fore, and the LCDS is a perfect example of this.
“In the early days of the LCDS, many sceptics thought that the LCDS was something too modern and complicated for Guyana, it was the kind of thing that only rich countries could do. But we, Guyanese, have proven them wrong. Today’s payment is concrete proof to any of these sceptics of what Guyana can achieve as a country. That is the story that the payment announcement today is telling us, and therefore, I think we all should be proud of this achievement.”
Guyana today, is one of the leading countries in the world in sustainable natural resources management, and every Guyanese is benefitting from this.
“Our most recent deforestation rate was even lower than the previous year. We should also be proud that Guyana is currently taking the final steps to be recognised as a country that follows the highest standards of sustainable timber exporting in the world under the European Union’s FLEGT programme. We are also working to be among the few countries in the world that have already set mechanisms to ensure the highest level of transparency in the natural resources sector through the EITI standard.”
Reminding that the LCDS would have reduced electricity bills starting next year had not the opposition voted down the Amaila Falls Hydropower Project, he said Guyana would now have been on the cusp of cheaper, more reliable electricity and being the number one user of clean energy in the world.
“Sadly, we will never get back the time and money wasted by the partisan games played by the opposition, but we can make sure that after May 11, these shameful events will not happen again. The money earned for Amaila – US$80 million – is sitting in a bank account in Washington D.C. It is ready to be deployed, and Amaila will be built in accordance with the due diligence, social, financial and environmental standards of the IDB, which are among the highest in the world.”
The Amaila project wasn’t the only thing under the LCDS that the opposition tried to obstruct, they attempted to prevent Norway from paying Guyana the money that it earned from keeping its forests standing.
“When the opposition failed to achieve this, they tried to stop us from spending this hard earned money on the Guyanese people by cutting the entire LCDS budget!” he reminded.
Now there are countries all around the world trying to learn from Guyana’s knowledge and experience to do something similar, he said, and added that it is these kind of new ideas that will make Guyana prosper.
“We have always been fighting to protect our nature so that we can leave an even more beautiful Guyana as a legacy to our children – and today we are leading the world in showing how finances can flow to forest countries. Guyana was once known for rigged elections and economic decay – today we are known for global environmental leadership. The benefits are for all our people and we must not throw them away.”
The PPPC has fixed a country that the opposition destroyed once and “we will not stand idle and watch them destroy it again,” he asserted.
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