CARICOM's New
POWER BROKER

The youngest Head of State in the region, Guyana's President Jagdeo brings new ideas for regional integration and renewed political stability in his homeland.

Stepping up to the plate and accepting one of the most difficult leadership jobs in Caricom, Guyana's 35 year old President, Bharrat Jagdeo's commitment to delivering on his coalition's promises, has brought much needed political stability and renewed confidence in the South American state's economy.

Despite his initial refusal to meet with the President when he first ascended to office, the battle wary Opposition leader Desmond Hoyte, also seemed more receptive to the President's proposals for reconciliation.
Described by political observers as Caricom's new power broker, President Jagdeo has been working behind the scenes meeting with businesses, investors and even embarking on a nationwide tour of rural districts to deal with the pressing concerns of both community and business leaders.
Expressing his concern about the country's political instability, he said the nation's future will be secure if it was more united in its quest for development and better living standards.
"If we are united as a people, the future will very good for Guyana. Our people can look forward to a bright prosperous future where we can focus on improving our education standards, deliver better health care and produce well paying jobs for our people.
"But this can only happen if we operate as a united people," the Head of State said in one of his weekly media broadcasts. He foresees that the country will be facing some challenges on the international front in the near future, including the rapid move to conclude negotiations on the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA).
President Jagdeo said the FTAA and the World Trade Organisation (WTO) system could present serious challenges for the smaller states.
"We have serious threats to our preferential markets and these would present serious difficulties to the sectors that export raw materials and products such as rice, sugar and rum, among others, into North America and Europe.
"With the exception of gold, commodity prices have not recovered on the world market. This situation will continue to adversely affect some sectors and our national development goals," the President cautioned. He was pleased that the political situation in Guyana was showing signs of stabilising and expressed the hope that good sense would prevail so that differences can be resolved.
Referring to the recent summit with the private sector, he said it was one attempt at creating an environment that would help stimulate capital flows.
"Hopefully, when that happens, we will see jobs being created and the economy resuming the growth path it had enjoyed in the past. Simultaneously, we are working on making our existing social development programmes much more efficient and relevant to our national objectives."
President Jagdeo said he would like to see more efficient expenditure in the health sector and a similar re-assessment in education to determine whether the country was receiving value for the money it has been expending.
Recalling his commitment to hold ministers to their promises when he accepted office, he noted that if they were unable to meet their goals, it should be explained to the people, rather than continuing to make promises that cannot be fulfilled."
He said that is why, at the recent tour of Berbice, they did not only focus on what was achieved by Government, but he also presented reasons why more could not have been accomplished. And the people were "very sympathetic as they understood the constraints Government faced."
President Jagdeo said government remained committed to honouring the provisions of the 'Herdmanston Accord' as originally brokered by a CARICOM mission to Georgetown following the December 1997 elections.
He continues to be optimistic about the country's future stability and progress even though a meeting between himself and the PNC leader has not yet taken place.
"I am also optimistic because the Guyanese people in general were absolutely fed up with so much of the negative politics and simply wanted to move on with their lives.
"I have gone around the country since I have been appointed President, including areas that have supported both the PNC and the PPP, and the mood is a totally different. People are fed up with the political posturing. And I think you are going to see this dissatisfaction reflected in the coming election results."
He was encouraged with the private sector's willingness to be more involved in the process of change and he expected this trend to expand in the months ahead.
Declaring that he remained committed to an "open-ended discussion" with the leader of the PNC, Jagdeo, nevertheless, stressed that he was not waiting around for such a meeting to take place and was engaged in discussions with representatives of other parties, the business community, the civil society and regional Governments.
In his quest to increase investment, Jagdeo announced that the governments of Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago have decided to establish a special working committee to promote trade and investment cooperation between the two Caribbean Community states.
The initiative resulted from bilateral talks he held with current CARICOM chairman Prime Minister Basdeo Panday during Caricom Heads of Government Conference in October. He said the two-day special meeting of CARICOM leaders was very productive and it was imperative that all efforts be made by CARICOM countries to speedily remove problems that affect free trade and investment flows within in the region.
He extended what he called "an open invitation" not just to Trinidadian and other regional investors to explore opportunities to do business in Guyana, but also the region's media "to see how fundamentally things have changed in his country."
He also discussed the options for dealing with the sale of Guyana's rice to Trinidad. That country's Trade Minister Mervyn Assam had previously complained about Guyana's capacity to supply the necessary quality and quantity to meet Trinidad's needs. Jagdeo however believes that the bigger issue was the trade arrangements between the two countries.
He admits that currently Guyana was not in a position to supply all of Trinidad's parboiled rice requirements but producers were at a disadvantage because the only way they can improve technology or the quality of their product is to get new markets.
Guyanese rice exporter Mahadeo Panchu of Tropical Traders, was surprised to hear that his rice was being criticised for low quality and unreliable supply. Panchu's main export market is Jamaica. He said his market share has been seriously eroded by dumped rice imported from Asia.
He said Jamaica was allowing a volume of PL 480 rice and low grade South East Asia rice into its market below cost, adversely affecting the Guyana's supply, Panchu said.
"There are states within the Caribbean which do not see it practical to abide by the Single Market and Economy," he argued,"within the last six months the price for Guyanese rice in Jamaica plummeted from around US$420 per metric tonne to US$320 per metric tonne, cost and freight."
"Although we are aware that there is a constant threat (to) the Jamaican rice market by Asian and Central American rice exporters, so far it is not affecting us as adversely as the PL 480 rice shipments. While the low quality PL 480 rice is given free access on the Jamaican market with high broken content, the Jamaican authorities are demanding that the broken content of our rice exported to their country must not exceed 20 per cent."
Panchu charged that if the problem persisted, coupled with falling world rice prices, the local industry would be crippled.

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