PPP GS defends PPP’s visionary path

The People’s Progressive Party/Civic’s (PPP/C) long-term planning has transformed Guyana from economic ruin to a global model of resilience, according to PPP General Secretary, Dr Bharrat Jagdeo.

“We are guided by frameworks, developmental plans… it fits into a (financial) philosophy and it recognises the challenges. This is not guesswork and it is why we have been able to deliver on the promises we made,” he stated at a press conference held at Freedom House, Robb Street, Georgetown, on Thursday.

Dr Jagdeo pointed to four key development strategies since 1996: the National Development Strategy (NDS), Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSP), National Competitiveness Strategy (NCS), and the Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS), now expanded to LCDS 2030.
He said these were tailored to Guyana’s realities and challenges, ensuring sustainable growth.

Many of today’s initiatives, he explained, were conceptualised in the 1990s but delayed due to the crippling debt inherited from the PNC.

Notably, the 1989 McIntyre Report found Guyana poorer than Haiti, with 50% inflation, 40% unemployment, and 1,000 people emigrating monthly. By 1992, debt exceeded 900% of GDP, with debt servicing swallowing 153% of revenue.

Now, debt has dropped from 47.4% of GDP in 2020 to 24.3% in 2024, among the lowest in the Western Hemisphere.

Dr Jagdeo credited “consistent, evidence-based policymaking,” and dismissed the opposition’s approach.

He said, “Look at their promises, it is just crazy things that I have seen… nothing on a reasoned approach to the problem.”

He emphasised that each PPP/C strategy had clear goals — from the NDS’s broad sectoral plans, to the PRSP’s role in debt relief, to the NCS’s push for innovation in key industries. The LCDS, launched in 2009, brought global recognition and over $200 million from Norway for forest protection. LCDS 2030 now includes marine ecosystems and carbon markets.

With oil revenues flowing and record growth, Dr. Jagdeo insists Guyana’s success was no accident.

“This is not guesswork,” he declared.