Sovereign Wealth Fund legislation by December

DPI, Guyana, Thursday, June 28, 2018

The draft legislation to establish Guyana’s sovereign wealth fund will be placed before the National Assembly before December. This was disclosed by Minister of Finance, Winston Jordan.

Minister of Finance, Winston Jordan.

“We have committed in the budget that this legislation will be put to Parliament before the end of the year; we have committed to that. This is June and based on our timetable we are still within the timetable we have committed to.”

In an exclusive interview with the Department of Public Information (DPI), the Finance Minister said since 2016 the government has been receiving help from the Commonwealth Secretariat to draft the legislation for the fund, and following consultations with various experts, a draft has been prepared. The fund is being set up to collect and save the considerable revenue accruing from the offshore oil bonanza expected to begin in early 2020.

“The Commonwealth has provided one expert and he has given an audience to the Cabinet about it. Cabinet has mandated me to submit a draft to the Attorney General about four weeks ago. I have handed it to the Attorney General to put it into legal language and when he is finished with that it will formally come to Cabinet for discussion and then further adjustments and then it will be put out to the public for consultations,” Minister Jordan added.

By: Kidackie Amsterdam.