GEORGETOWN, Guyana (CMC): Guyana on Wednesday embarked upon a new phase of much-needed financial reform, with President Bharrat Jagdeo suggesting that the country has come a long way in managing its fiscal deficit.
Addressing the launch of the Guyana Threshold Country Plan Implementation Project (GTCP/IP), the president noted that an important objective of the programme was to reduce the current deficit of 8.12 per cent of GDP.
"Today, we are complaining that the fiscal deficit is too high, (but) there was a time when our fiscal deficit was 25 per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and our balance of payment deficit was close to 50 per cent and our inflation rate was 100 per cent and interest rates were close to 40 per cent.
"That is where we came from and when we had 94 per cent of revenue that went into servicing external debt," Jagdeo said.
"Today, these indicators that you see, we got here through a lot of hard work and struggle and sacrifices by many Guyanese," he added.
The US$6.7-million programme is receiving strong support from the United States government.
Strong bilateral relations
New United States Ambassador to Guyana John Jones described the initiative as "tangible evidence of the strong bilateral relations" between the two countries.
USAID Mission Director Peter Hubbard also said the project was "the beginning of a critical phase in the process toward improving and strengthening Guyana's reforms".
The programme is being funded under the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) which is a global initiative that has so far committed some US$440 million to 18 countries, vice-president and general counsel of the MCC, Geoff Anderson, disclosed at Wednesday's launch.
Under the plan, both sides are projecting a complete overhaul of the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) into a more "functional" body.
A comprehensive training plan for GRA employees is also to be completed under the programme, which also looks at computerisation of the GRA, the Deeds Registry, the National Insurance Scheme and the Guyana Office for Investment.
