The post-1992 Guyana economy experienced an average growth rate of 9 per cent between 1993 and 1996. The following year much ground was lost due to the strategy of social disruption pursued by the People’s National Congress (PNC). Growth in the economy in 1997 fell from its 9 level, wiping out those crucial increases in actual purchasing power generated by government policies. Irrespective, that fact alone is not a sufficient condition for reliance upon private overseas remittances as a modifying factor to enhance incomes and help fill the gap between potential incomes and wages and salaries actually earned by Guyanese workers.

Since 1992, the PPP/C government’s monetary policy significantly reduced inflation from its 1992 high of 100 per cent to 4.1 per cent, today. That single digit rate has contributed to a steady buildup of net international reserves and thus a stable exchange rate. Based on those figures, until the PNC mobilised 1997- disruption, and the disturbances that followed, the Guyana economy out-performed those of other Caribbean countries. It is precisely for this reason the Orozco recommendation cannot be adopted on the basis of its projected annual transfer of $US10M, and no more. . For what it fails to do was to take into account the successes of the economic model that is the foundation of the present government’s policy, and a fortiori, omits to mention the absence of a significant recessionary gap in earnings, as the contributory ‘push’ factor in creating the undetermined overseas Guyanese population.

$US10M, annually, representing 13 percent of gross domestic product, in the pockets of recipients, might be good reason for euphoria on the part of those who wish another economic model based on different monetary and fiscal policies favourable to themselves, but that reaction must not detract from obvious weaknesses in the thesis. No quantification of the volume of remittances has been advanced, nor has there been an analysis of the types of transfers it represents.

The market for electronic money transfers, as Dr. Orozco correctly states, is undeveloped and ill-defined, however, in order to properly benefit from integrating remittances into the national economy, there will first be required a comprehensive study of the structure of remittances and a detailed analysis of how much $US10million remains in Guyana. It is not known whether remittances are solely comprised of income transfers, or was there included debt repayments or educational grants or maintenance costs for retirees and old family members. The symposium simply did not make available the necessary information.

The challenge for Guyanese is to break the syndrome of ‘persistent poverty’, by electing to government political parties that are committed to democracy and whose manifestoes demonstrate economic policies capable of controlling inflation. Matching the political party to effective policy has been the project entrusted to the PPP/C government since 1992. Continuance will depend upon their respect for democratic practices and the rule of law, as much as, the correct package of corrective measures to rid our country of the scourge of destructive and irresponsible opposition.

Guyanese like other Caribbean nationals are fully acquainted with the linkages between higher wages in far away lands and the need for charity. They understand too the vagaries of migration. We have had a long history of peopling those economies whom Sir Arthur Lewis called ‘north atlantic nations’.