Rohee says PNC scaring away investors
In the seven-and-a-half years since the PPP/Civic has been in power the government has not attracted one large new investment, that is why the private sector is drowning and unemployment is rising. So said PNC Member of Parliament (MP) John de Freitas who speaks for his party on private sector matters. However, Minister of Foreign Affairs Clement Rohee rebutted that in addition to the eight years which the PPP/Civic was in office trying to salvage the wrecked economy the PNC left, the party needs at least 30 years more in government to put Guyana back on track. At the time Rohee made the remarks, during the current budget debate, he was responding to charges by the PNC MP of the government's incompetence in governing the affairs of the country. De Freitas and Rohee made presentations on the budget in the National Assembly on Tuesday. Charges by the PNC of no large investment, a high unemployment rate, an economy in crisis and political instability are all allegations with no foundation, Rohee said. Nevertheless, the PNC, he said, has a conscious policy and strategy it has embarked on to scare away investments. This remark prompted a chorus of "Shame! Shame! Shame!" from the government benches. Whilst Rohee said that the 2000 budget was ground for optimism, de Freitas said he had never seen such apathy over a budget. "People are not talking about it; it is hardly discussed in the press. What is even more astonishing is the silence from the PPP supporters in the private sector." De Freitas said the budget spoke of better profits at the commercial banks. However, he noted that on March 11, Clifford Reis, chairman of Citizens Bank, was reported as saying that 35 per cent - 40 per cent of the loans at the commercial banks were bad. The norm in the West Indies is 9.1 per cent, he said. He also said the property market had dropped about 60 per cent in value in the last five years. It is almost impossible to sell shares in prime Guyanese companies today, he said. The stock market has collapsed before it has been opened. The PNC MP alluded to problems in the court system. He said next year money and managerial skills would have to be found to begin to correct the collapse in the justice system. All private companies know that it takes an average of five years to get a matter heard in court, he said. De Freitas said the private sector needs a sympathetic government which will produce an investment code, reduce taxes, cut out corruption and provide political stability. Rohee responded by saying that the PNC's response to the national budget was not surprising. One would have expected, he said, that the PNC being in government for 28 years should have a sense of appreciation for what the government has achieved in spite of a hostile international market; the unequal and unfair nature of the global trading system; the negative impact of globalisation and trade liberalisation and the calamitous and bankrupt nature of the economy which the PPP/Civic government inherited from the PNC. How much better would the PNC have done or what policies would they have implemented, he asked contending that one only has to cast one's mind back to the days when the PNC was in office, had its chance to do better and failed miserably. Responding to PNC backbencher Sherwood Lowe's charge that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has a stranglehold on the management of the country's economy and the lame acceptance by the PPP of this situation, Rohee said that it was the Hoyte administration which courted the IMF, brought them to Guyana and the current administration is now trying to grapple with the situation.
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