Georgetown: Fellow Guyanese, a Happy New Year to you all, wherever you are in Guyana and in the Diaspora. I hope that this New Year will bring more prosperity to you in all of your personal and professional endeavours.
I urge you to re-commit yourselves in achieving all of your goals.
As we bid goodbye to the year 2012, it is customary to reflect on the year gone by. For us, it has been a year of challenges and also positive developments. In the face of a very serious economic crisis that has gripped the world, Guyana has performed well on the economic front.
We have managed the economy very well and have made progress in continuing to expand our economic base. For 2012 we expect to record a GDP growth of about 4 percent making this the seventh straight year that our economy has recorded growth.
Our sustained strong economic performance is an impressive achievement in light of the prevailing international economic situation. It shows that although we are a small vulnerable economy, the policies we implemented have allowed our economy to be resilient to the external challenges that we face.
Looking to the social sectors, I want to particularly mention education. We have achieved universal primary education, we are well on our way to achieving universal secondary education and more of our young people are accessing tertiary and university education than ever before. Our children who wrote the CXC examinations have once more captured most of the awards, given by the Caribbean examination and certification board.
Investing in the education of our young people is important for progress in our country to continue and in this case what we see is that our investment is paying off. I congratulate all our successful children, their parents and more importantly their teachers.
The same positive results we see in education can be seen in other social sectors as health, housing and other areas which impact heavily on the lives of our people. In fact we will begin the construction of a new specialty hospital that will provide tertiary health care of a high standard to our citizens.
Our housing programme has helped to fulfill the dreams of many to own their own homes. We will continue to seek more innovative ways to help more of our people to experience the security of having their own roof over their heads.
All of these achievements that I mentioned above were made in the face of a domestically difficult political environment. I had hoped that with the new configuration in Parliament that we would have had more cooperation and engagement.
In fact, I was quite hopeful and had mentioned in my swearing in speech my willingness to work with the other political parties in Parliament. Unfortunately, this was not to be. Instead what all of us have observed is that the National Assembly was transformed into an arena where the main objective and obsession of the opposition was to score partisan political points counter to our national interests.
It is now in such a state that unconstitutional motions are being regularly taken in Parliament. In defense of the rule of law and the Constitution, we have had resort to going to the Courts.
In fact it is these same misguided positions and actions that led to some citizens being harassed and abused in Agricola and the unfortunate loss of lives in Linden.
Clearly we need more dialogue and discussions in our society. History has shown that a nation’s all round progress is always enhanced when honest debates, dialogue and compromise are the tools used in the body politic.
While the government has been willing and has moved even more than halfway to meet the opposition and compromise, we have not seen that same willingness from the other sides. I urge the collective opposition to reconsider its positions and recommit itself to the betterment of our country and the lives of the citizens of our Guyana.
This New Year, 2013 promises to be a very exciting year for us. We hope to carry forward the major projects all of which have the potential to accelerate our growth rate. We intend to continue to invest in our people.
We are working to construct new schools in the interior to ensure that all of our children, no matter where they are have a chance at a secondary education.
This year too we expect our new fibre-optic cable to be operational and that we would be able to extend its services right across our coastland and through our interior. It is our expectation that this will create IT jobs not only in the centre at Georgetown but from Charity to Moleson Creek and into our interior. All of these initiatives will make steady advances towards a modern economy and society.
This year we will also be observing some important anniversaries in the history of our country. We will be observing the 250th anniversary of the Berbice Slave Uprising, the 175th anniversary of the arrivals of Indians in Guyana and the 175th anniversary of the abolition of slavery.
These anniversaries are significant to all Guyanese. They must be used to allow us to foster a greater understanding of ourselves and a deeper appreciation for each other.
These anniversaries can help us promote our uniqueness as a Guyanese people and promote our Guyanese culture that has emerged and is enriched by all of our ethnicities, and the collective experiences of our people who have made this land their home.
On this new year I ask you to join with me on the journey of realizing our common Guyanese dream of making this country of ours a peaceful, modern and prosperous society in which we realize fully our motto of One People, One Nation, One Destiny.
Once more, a Happy New Year to you All!
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