Vice President Dr Bharrat Jagdeo revealed that as early as next year, the government will launch instruments to help citizens invest their savings for a guaranteed return.
Speaking during his press conference on Thursday, he said the government plans to issue a bond while the final rates have not yet been determined, the minimum investment could be $50,000, with an upper limit of around $1 million.
“…and you can then invest in a government bond,” he noted.
“So, if you have a bank account now with $500,000, you’re probably getting 1%-2% interest,” Jagdeo outlined, noting that with the bond, citizens can potentially get a 5% guaranteed interest.
Moreover, the Vice President explained that to make it a liquid instrument, the government is planning to launch a bond market.
“So, you can easily trade the bond there, and people would be able to get liquidity if they need it although they invest in a fixed term asset,” he explained.
Opportunities for investment will also become available in the fertiliser plant and gas bottling factory, for which the government has already issued Requests for Expressions of Interest.
Speaking about the fertiliser plant, Jagdeo reminded that “we made it clear that we want Guyanese to have ownership of the plant…because they can get a guaranteed and a very lucrative return and we’ll underwrite the return on that.”
He explained that the structure of the company would see a significant amount of Guyanese ownership, with a carve-out for citizens with less savings to own part of that plant, “because you can get a higher return, maybe up to 10% return on your money invested”.
A similar structure would be developed for the gas bottling plant, Jagdeo said.
According to the Vice President, “too often people just park their savings in the banking system and they don’t look at the return on the savings and we wanna give small people especially a higher return on their savings.”
In the future, Govt to create more opportunities for citizens to invest – Jagdeo
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