National Development Strategy
We welcome the news that a broad based committee will be set up to review and revise the draft National Development Strategy. That draft was completed towards the end of 1996. There followed some public consultations. However, the main opposition party, the People's National Congress (PNC), indicated that it did not accept the document as it had not been involved in its preparation. It also said the document had been effectively prepared by the Carter Center. In an effort to respond to this criticism senior persons connected to or sympathetic with the PNC and other opposition parties have been invited to participate in the revision process. As we understand it, this will involve taking a fresh look at the specific policies formulated in the six volume Strategy and revising them where this is considered appropriate. This detailed work will be done by a number of sectoral committees in all of which persons sympathetic to the opposition will be involved. The object of the exercise is to create the widest level of involvement so that the eventual document can be broadly accepted. The Strategy was based on a technical analysis of the problems and prospects in the various sectors of the economy, in major areas of social concern and at the macroeconomic level. Specific policies were formulated in all these areas which were intended to serve as guidelines for implementation and in some cases involve legislative changes. A lot of the work was done by 23 technical working groups involving over two hundred persons from government, non-governmental organisations, the business community and the University of Guyana. Some resident experts from international and bilateral donor agencies made a contribution and the Carter Center provided overall advisory assistance and helped coordinate the project with personnel from the ministry of finance. Anyone who has glanced through or read parts of the Strategy cannot fail to be impressed with the work that has been done. There have, inevitably, been various criticisms. It has been said, with some justification, that the Strategy lacks an overarching vision. Specific policies have also been criticised. But an hour or two spent reading the Strategy will show the basic and useful work that has been done in every sector, defining the situation, looking at the structural and other problems and offering guidelines for solutions. At the very least, the Strategy takes the definition of the problems in each sector to a new level and shows the issues that have to be tackled to achieve progress. It will be a tragedy if all this work is wasted. It will benefit from a fresh look from people like Mr Stanley Ming who is involved in the new committee and have ideas of their own. With appropriate inputs, what can emerge is a document which will help to clarify the thinking of all who have it and will advance the level of the economic debate on all sides of the political spectrum. 
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