Natural resources in Guyana

Dear Editor,

On a per capita basis, Guyana is one of the very well-endowed countries in the world; for it has oil and gas, gold and diamonds, and many other minerals, as well as arable lands. Also, Guyana has a rich diversity of plants animals and marine life; and it has many creeks and rivers. Table 1 below shows an incomplete listing of what resources are available; but the foundational information, including what are the recognised quantities and quality of these resources are not known.

So here is the concern: When foreign investors come to Guyana and recognise that our Guyanese policymakers do not know in detail what we have; and cannot engage in serious investment contract negotiations, we are taken for a ride. Or as the old people have said: “When you do not know what you have, people will take advantage pun yuh!”, This lack of knowledge must stop, if development and higher standard of living are to be harnessed for current and future generations.

Table 1 is a partial overview of what we have to complete in order to understand our endowment, and to build a sovereign wealth fund that includes all the non-renewable resources. Incidentally, our grandparents built our first sovereign wealth fund, not with dollars, but with several permanent food crops they planted to transfer food to the subsequent generations. Consequently, the task before us is to extend that inter-generational gift bag by building a state-owned sovereign wealth fund from the revenue earned from our non-renewable natural resources. Get the job done!