Friday, November 13 2009

The Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting begins in Port-of-Spain on November 27 and continues for three days. Fifty-one heads or their representatives will assemble at the Hyatt for the talks. Two countries have been suspended—the Fiji Islands which was suspended from membership on September 21, 2009 and Nauru, which is in arrears. We continue today a daily feature on the Commonwealth and feature the Heads of these States who are expected in Port-of-Spain in November.

Bharrat Jagdeo, 47, has been the President of Guyana since August 11, 1999. Prior to his presidency he was Minister of Finance and became President after Janet Jagan resigned for health reasons; he has since won two elections, in 2001 and 2006.

Jagdeo was born in Unity Village on the East Coast of Demerara. He joined the youth wing of the People’s Progressive Party (PPP), the Progressive Youth Organisation, when he was 13, and became a member of the PPP itself at age 16. He subsequently rose to local leadership positions in the party.

After obtaining a Master’s in Economics from Patrice Lumumba Peoples’ Friendship University in Moscow in 1990, Jagdeo returned to Guyana and worked as an economist in the State Planning Secretariat until the PPP/Civic election victory in the October 1992 election.

After this he became Special Advisor to the Minister of Finance.

Jagdeo was appointed as Junior Minister of Finance in October 1993, and a few weeks later, at the PPP’s 24th Congress, he was elected to the party’s Central Committee.

He later became a member of the Executive Committee of the PPP. In the Cabinet, he was promoted to Senior Minister of Finance in May 1995. On August 8 1999, Janet Jagan announced that she was resigning as President for health reasons and that Jagdeo would be her successor. Because the Prime Minister is the President’s legal successor, Jagdeo took office as Prime Minister on August 9 so that he would be positioned to succeed Jagan. He was then sworn in as President on August 11.

Jagdeo was re-elected for another five-year term on August 28, 2006, with the PPP garnering 54.6 percent of the votes and expanded its majority by two to 36 seats in the 65-member parliament. He was sworn in for another term on September 2

At the PPP’s 29th Congress, Jagdeo received the highest number of votes (777) in the election to the party’s Central Committee, held on August 2, 2008. He was then elected to the PPP Executive Committee on August 12, 2008.



Economy

The main economic activities in Guyana are agriculture (production of rice and Demerara sugar), bauxite mining, gold mining, timber, shrimp fishing and minerals. Chronic problems include a shortage of skilled labour and a deficient infrastructure. In 2008, the economy witnessed a three percent increase in growth amid the global economic crisis and is expected to grow further in 2009. Until recently, the government was juggling a sizable external debt against the urgent need for expanded public investment. Low prices for key mining and agricultural commodities combined with troubles in the bauxite and sugar industries had threatened the government’s tenuous fiscal position and dimmed prospects for the future. However, the Guyanese economy has rebounded slightly and exhibited moderate economic growth since 1999, thanks to an expansion in the agricultural and mining sectors, a more favourable atmosphere for business initiatives, a more realistic exchange rate, fairly low inflation, and the continued support of international organisations.

The sugar industry, which accounts for 28 percent of all export earnings, is largely run by the company Guysuco, which employs more people than any other industry. Many industries have a large foreign investment. For example, the mineral industry is heavily invested in by the American company Reynolds Metals and the Canadian Rio Tinto Alcan; the Korean/Malaysian Barama Company has a large stake in the logging industry.

The production of balatá (natural latex) was once big business in Guyana. Most of the balata bleeding in Guyana took place in the foothills of the Kanuku Mountains in the Rupununi. Early exploitation also took place in the North West District, but most of the trees in the area were destroyed by illicit bleeding methods that involved cutting down the trees rather than making incisions in them. Folk uses of balatá included the making of cricket balls, the temporary filling of troublesome tooth cavities, and the crafting of figurines and other decorative items (particularly by the Macushi people of the Kanuku mountains).

Major private sector organisations include the Private Sector Commission (PSC) and the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce & Industry (GCCI);

The government initiated a major overhaul of the tax code in early 2007. The Value Added Tax (VAT) was brought into effect, replacing six different taxes. Prior to the implementation of the VAT, it had been relatively easy to evade sales tax, and many businesses were in violation of tax code. Many businesses were very opposed to VAT introduction because of the extra paperwork required; however, the Government has remained firm on the VAT. President Bharrat Jagdeo has made debt relief a foremost priority of his administration. He has been quite successful, getting US$800 million of debt written off by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), in addition to millions more from other industrial nations. Mr Jagdeo was lauded by IDB President Moreno for his strong leadership and negotiating skills in pursuing debt relief for Guyana and several other regional countries.

The present population of Guyana is racially and ethnically heterogeneous, composed chiefly of the descendants of immigrants who came to the country either as enslaved or indentured labourers. The population therefore comprises groups of persons with nationality backgrounds from India, Africa, China, Europe (especially the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and Portugal), with several Aboriginal groups as the indigenous population. These groups of diverse nationality backgrounds have been fused together by a common language, i.e., English and Creole. There has been racial tension between the Indo-Caribbean people and the African-Caribbeans.

The largest ethnic sub-group is that of the descendants of immigrants from India also known as East Indians (Indo-Guyanese), comprising 43.5 percent of the population in 2002. They are followed by people of African heritage (Afro-Guyanese) (30.2 percent). The third in number are those of mixed heritage (16.7 percent), while Aboriginals (Arawak, Wai Wai, Carib, Akawaio, Arecuna, Patamona, Wapixana, Macushi and Warao) are fourth making up close to ten percent of the population. The smallest groups are European, including Portuguese who number at 1,500 individuals and the Chinese who number at 1,400 persons, and Middle Easterners of Arabic and Jewish extraction.