Jordan, Jagdeo clash over development plans for Guyana

Finance Minister Winston Jordan called on Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo to tell the people where his long-term development plan for Guyana was, when the PPP/C served 23 years as the Government.

Jagdeo had stated that in light of the failing economy, the Government has not introduced any long- or short-term plan. He said the APNU/AFC Administration needs to address the waning situation where the economy is in a nose-dive for the worse, and to stop denying the situation.

He explained that the coalition has been in government for one year and three months but it has failed to both publicise and/or implement any short- or long-term plans which would build and strengthen Guyana’s economy.

Jordan told the media on Monday: “We don’t expect him to say the Government is doing anything perfect…his job is to oppose what we are doing.”

He challenged reporters to probe Jagdeo about whether billions pumped into the economy in the last 23 years was evident with the state of the country pre-election 2015.

He argued that the previous Administration never produced a long-term development plan in the country.

Jagdeo had stated that government should define its long-term goal for the country, and outline where it is going to be in five/ten years’ time, and the policy measures it will need to implement to get there.

“There’s no long-term plan, there’s no short-term plan, this government acts capriciously,” Jagdeo argued and said that there are no programmes or policies to define the administration’s strategy but stressed that with sound policies the challenges present in today’s economy could be overcome.

The Opposition Leader pointed out that the APNU/AFC coalition should not depend mostly on the profits of oil in Guyana to help stabilise and boost the economy: “We are enjoying a period of relative calm and basically good prices but these are going to turn against us again…prices are going to climb back in the future for fossil fuel…We have no plan, and we are not even making short-term investment plans,” he also explained.