Category: Budget Speeches

Introduction

1.1     Mr. Speaker, I rise to move the motion for the approval of the Estimates of the Public Sector and the Budget for the Financial Year 2020 and, in doing so, I wish to indicate that Cabinet has recommended that the National Assembly proceed upon this motion, pursuant to Article 171 Paragraph 2 of the Constitution of the Co-operative Republic of Guyana.

1.2     Budget 2020 is finally before this Honourable House after one of the most testing, convoluted, complicated, and traumatic periods of Guyana’s post-independence history. Twenty months since Budget 2019 was adopted in this National Assembly, 628 days since the No-Confidence Motion was successfully passed on December 21st, 2018, 475 days since a sitting of the National Assembly, 191 days since the March 2nd, 2020 General and Regional Elections, and 38 days following the declaration of those election results on August 2nd, 2020, with the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) being sworn in as the legitimate Government of Guyana.

1.3     The people of this country have been tried and tested but not defeated. Our nation’s young democracy was under severe duress, however, the Guyana Constitution and the judicial system showed their resilience in the face of repeated efforts to undermine both. Our people endured and remained resolute and peaceful in their defense of democracy. We as a people were bolstered by the support of over 100 nations and all the major international and regional bodies – the United Nations (UN), the Commonwealth, the Organisation of American States and the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) – in their righteous defense of the will of the people to elect a government of their choice and, in the end, democracy prevailed.

1.4     How should we feel when several of our neighbouring sister CARICOM countries had their elections in the period between March 2nd and August 2nd, 2020 with their results declared within hours of the close of poll? The unwarranted delays and subsequent court challenges that·ensued have certainly tarnished the image of Guyana’s democratic credentials, a situation this President Ali-led Government has already started to correct.

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2020 Budget Speech

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Introduction:

Mr Speaker, I rise to move the motion for approval of the Estimates of the Public Sector and the Budget for the financial year 1996. In so doing, I wish to indicate that in concurrence with A1ticle 171, paragraph 2 of the Constitution, the Cabinet has recommended that the National Assembly proceed upon this motion.

Mr Speaker, we are all aware of the tremendous potential of our nation. In this Visit Guyana Year, many people from around the world will come to see for themselves the human and physical richness with which our wonderful land and people have been blessed. At the same time, the country is faced with many challenges – reducing poverty, developing human resoµrces, growing with equity, rebuilding the infrastructure, overcoming the debt burden, protecting the environment, and managing our resources better. Overcoming these will take a· concerted and ongoing effort. Our Government has made great strides in rebuilding the country and has restored our people’s confidence in a bright future.

Mr Speaker, we are acutely aware that the transition we are going through is difficult. In recent decades, our people have endured much hardship. Their impatience for a rapid improvement in their living standards is very understandable. We have worked, and will continue to work, tirelessly to meet the aspirations of our citizens so that each and every Guyanese can fulfill his or her potential. At the same time, we should recognise that these problems cannot be solved overnight. While the Government continues to campaign vigorously for comprehensive debt relief, the harsh reality is that the national debt will continue to serve as a binding constraint on our social and economic development.

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1996 Budget

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Introduction:

1 1.1 Mr Speaker, I rise to move the motion for the approval of the Estimates of the Public Sector and the Budget for the Financial Year 2002. In so doing, I wish to indicate that in concurrence with Article 171, par agraph 2 of the Constitution, the Cabinet has recommended that the National Assembly proceed upon this motion.

1.2 Mr Speaker, Year 2001 was as eventful as it was difficult. It was a year in which we stood witness to the triumphs and traumas of our country and the tragic events that unfolded in the international community. These have left lingering scars in their wake. Even so, I would like to pay early tribute to the Guyanese people for their fortitude that has seen us through thus far. We will continue to count on their resilience and abundant resourcefulness, as we forge ahead with the implementation of our growth-inducing and poverty-reduction programmes in 2002 and beyond.

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2002 Budget Speech

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Introduction:

I.I Madam Speaker, I rise to move the motion for the approval of the Estimates of the Public Sector and the Budget for the Financial Year 2007. In so doing, I wish to indicate that in accordance with Article 171, Paragraph 2 of the Constitution, the Cabinet has recommended that the National Assembly proceed upon this motion.

1.2 Madam Speaker, coming as it does at the beginning of a new term of office and, in this case, the fourth consecutive tenn of the PPP/Civic Government since its 1992 assumption of office, this Budget concretises our vision of a modern and equitable society for all Guyanese, as elaborated in a number of documents such as the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper and individual sector strategy papers. Just recently, His Excellency the President reiterated this vision in his Inaugural Address to this Ninth
Parliament, which address was extensively debated and endorsed in this Honourable House.

1.3 As we have emphasised, our vision is for a better Guyana – a Guyana where our people live in perpetual harmony, enjoying greater cohesion and prosperity; a society in which our quality of life compares favourably with our immediate and distant neighbours; and a society that is recognised for the care and attention it places on children, women, youths, the elderly and the less fortunate. We must, therefore, strive for economic success in order to establish a better society for all. We have to build
safeguards and act to sustain economic growth and stability long into the future, and we must continue to work to find ways of sharing more evenly the benefits of our economic success.

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2007 Budget Speech

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Theme: Laying the Foundation of Growth in the 1990s.

Introduction:

Comrade Speaker, I rise to move the Motion for the approval of the Estimates of the Public Sector and the Budget for 1991).

I should like to begin with some general observations of short compass aimed at providing a conspectus of the international environment within which this Budget has been fashioned.

For the developed countries, lower levels of growth in the 1990s than in the previous decade might reasonably be expected. The limited trickle-down of the benefits of the international economic growth is now widely recognised. This is partly attributable to structural changes in the global economy and. in the patterns of consumption and the efficiency of production in the developed countries. Efforts to maintain or restore economic balance in the developed countries of the West, and in particular, the more active use of interest rates and lax fiscal policies, have contributed to the dampening of the demand for traditional products for countries such as ours. The prospects for the Third World growth in the 1990s remain dependent on the outcome of a variety of initiatives.

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1990 Budget Speech

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Theme: Keeping Guyana on the Move Forward.

Introduction:

THE EVOLVING ROLE OF THE ERP IN MOVING THE ECONOMY FORWARD

Comrade Speaker, the theme of this year’s Budget Statement is ‘Keeping Guyana on the Move Forward’. With that objective in mind I rise to move the Motion for the approval of the Estimates of the Public Sector and the Budget for the financial year 1992. I wish to signify that in conformity with Article 171, paragraph 2 of the Constitution that the Cabinet has recommended that the

National Assembly proceed upon this motion. I wish to start by reporting that in this the third year of the decade of Hope the Economic Recovery Programme (ERP) has succeeded in initiating the Great Economic Recovery of Guyana.

I wish also to convey a simple message to those pundits and their parties who since 1989 have in tenebrous predictions and prognostications claimed that the ERP would not work. The one who says it cannot be done should never interrupt the one who is doing it”.

The ERP, is a comprehensive matrix of policies and measures designed to restore the economy to a path of sustainable economic growth and a viable balance of payments position over the medium-term, to reintegrate the parallel economy into the official sector, and to normalise relations with external creditors.

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1992 Budget Speech

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