“Our job will never be finished until Guyana has been completely transformed” - President

 

Friday 18 th August-2006

Presidential Candidate of the People’s Progressive Party/Civic Bharrat Jagdeo said even though Guyana has undergone large scale transformation over the last 14 years, the Party is determined to realise its vision of completely transforming every sector during the years ahead.

He was at the time addressing thousands of supporters from Leguan, Essequibo River, gathered for a political rally earlier today.

President Jagdeo said over the last three terms there has been visible and abstract progress in the areas of fiscal management, infrastructure and a number of social services.

The Head-of-State drew attention to old age and public assistance payments which he noted have increased over the last few years and more significantly in 2006.

This has increased from a minimal sum in the early 1900s to $800M earlier this year, adding that government has included the payment of water rates for pensioners.

“But that is just a small part of it” the President said “we have a lot more to do…we have a country to build.

He added that “we have much more to do because they have left us with a bankrupt country that was barely manageable.”

He noted that more than 70,000 persons have been allocated house lots ever since the current Administration’s entry to office.

“Our job is still not finished until every Guyanese who want a house lot has access to one,” the Head-of-State added.

He said while the country has experienced rapid development in infrastructure, there is still more that Government wants to do.

Referring to the steadily rising cost of fuel Mr. Jagdeo noted that a US$300M deal has been signed for a hydro-electric plant which will see a reduction in electricity charges for consumers.

Roads and sea-defence structures he said, have also benefited from significant increases in budgetary allocation.

Under the previous regime there was no budgetary allocation for sea defence works in Leguan between the years 1980 to 1989 while the allocation for 2006 is in excess of $300M.

President Jagdeo said when his Party won the Elections in 1992 there was very little confidence in the country’s economic performance as was reflected in high interest rates offered by banking institutions and other financial service providers.

This he said has reduced dramatically from approximately 35 percent to 12 percent in 2006.

“We have taken this country from bankruptcy to economic viability,” he said.

He added that the huge debt burden left by the previous administration was utilising 94 percent of the country’s economy.

This, he said, has been drastically reduced to 12 percent and stands to be further reduced to 4 or 5 percent if government is successful with its bid for debt relief from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).

The President alluded also to the reduction in foreign debt from US2.1B to $800M.

On the premise of the Party’s track record, the President said that he is confident of re-election on August 28.

 

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