…in our dear Guyana
When President Jagdeo went ahead with the construction of the Marriott Hotel, the naysayers went after him tooth and nail – and with a whole lotta venom!! What did Guyana need with a 5-star Hotel? Weren’t the few we had enough for the folks who visited, since most of them were Guyanese visiting “home”? Well, that shows how stuck in the past they were – couldn’t conceive that if we were serious about the Private Sector being the engine of growth, foreign businesses had to come in.
Isn’t that how China, Korea etc developed from scratch? But if you want “foreign businesses to come”, it means foreign businessmen would have to come on down to personally examine the prospects. And the first thing businessmen do when coming into Third World countries – remember, oil wasn’t struck then! – is worry where the heck will they stay? The image in their minds when they think about us is hovels in the countryside and slums in the towns!!
Did Jagdeo’s critics factor this in? No, they didn’t. But Jagdeo did… and knew that once they know Guyana has a branded name like the Marriott, they know what to expect. A Marriott anywhere in the world guarantees a particular level of service – and they deliver. And so said, so done. And when the oil gushed, the Marriott was there to house all those Texas oil men who came to town!! They immediately rented an entire floor for their Execs. In fact, with the Marriott being the only (top hotel) game in town, they’re pretty much booked up for the year. You can’t even get a room if your cousin the King of Jordan wanted to visit!!
And the demonstrator effect worked. This weekend, we learnt that there are at least TWENTY HOTELS WITH 3450 ROOMS going up – with at least five already started!! Now, if there was the need for a vote of confidence in Guyana’s immediate prospects, this is it! Businesses work from business plans – and business plans have studies of the projected market incorporated, and this means that these businessmen see many of their peers coming into our dear old mudland.
Now, we know that most of them initially will be connected with the oil industry – but this is where the Ali Administration continues to look ahead. By having Exxon spring for the gas-to-shore pipeline and opening up the downstream opportunities like urea, methanol, LNG etc to the Private Sector, they know this will continue to attract some big players in this area. Then, of course, there’s the diversification into agriculture to address the region and the world’s food security needs.
Yes, the PPP has prepared Guyana for the boom!!
…for political parties in Guyana
Guyana has a constitution that guarantees elections for choosing the Government of Guyana. But the way the PNC and their legion of factions are behaving, you’d think street action and threats are the only way to get back into power. Does this mean they’ve concluded they can’t win a free and fair election in Guyana? Well, to be honest, if they did, your Eyewitness believes they’re into something!! Right now, as the Yanks would say, they couldn’t get themselves elected dog catcher of Georgetown!!
But they have only themselves to blame. Okay…they “tried a thing” with the rigging. But in politics – like in poker – “you gotta know when to hold and know when to fold it”! And the PNC should’ve long folded their scorched earth campaign. They have a minority base – like the PNC – and their truculence is just turning off others who might be disgruntled with the PPP for one reason or another!
Let’s see if a new leader will have some (good) sense!
…but not for the AFC
The AFC postponed their National Executive Conference to “after March 2022”. They said it’s because of COVID and sorting out the Cummingsburg Accord.
Don’t they understand there’s absolutely no room in the PNC coalition for them?
