A Pivotal Moment for Guyana : Realizing the Opportunities

Guyana stands at the threshold of a new era. The recent discovery of vast offshore oil and gas (O&G) reserves and the start of production, is poised to fundamentally transform the structure of the Guyanese economy while generating an influx of...

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Main Author: World Bank
Format: Report
Language:English
Published: World Bank, Washington, DC 2021
Subjects:
Online Access:http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/691761607528494981/A-Pivotal-Moment-for-Guyana-Realizing-the-Opportunities-Systematic-Country-Diagnostic
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/34969
id okr-10986-34969
recordtype oai_dc
spelling okr-10986-349692021-04-23T14:02:13Z A Pivotal Moment for Guyana : Realizing the Opportunities World Bank OIL SECTOR INTERGENERATIONAL EQUITY GOVERNANCE INSTITUTIONS STATE-OWNED ENTERPRISES STRUCTURAL TRANSFORMATION JOB CREATION EMPLOYMENT HUMAN CAPITAL DEVELOPMENT POVERTY REDUCTION INCLUSIVE GROWTH SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT Guyana stands at the threshold of a new era. The recent discovery of vast offshore oil and gas (O&G) reserves and the start of production, is poised to fundamentally transform the structure of the Guyanese economy while generating an influx of fiscal revenue. Prior to the discovery, extractive industries and commodity exports already played a major role in Guyana’s economy and public finances. However, the mining sector created few jobs and had a limited impact on poverty reduction. The rise of the O&G sector poses unprecedented macro-fiscal management challenges while offering new opportunities to address longstanding development constraints. The development of oil-producing countries often comes at high cost of environment and climate change, which needs to be balanced. In addition, the country is now facing the challenges from the COVID-19 pandemic that will stretch the public health systems and highlight inadequacies of testing and treatment facilities. The SCD is organized into six chapters. Chapter 1 situates the development of the oil sector within Guyana’s broader economic, social, and political context. Chapter 2 estimates the magnitude of fiscal revenues from the oil sector, along with alternative cost scenarios, and the implications of alternative strategies for allocating these revenues and considers how policies can mitigate the macro-fiscal and environmental risks posed by the sector. Chapter 3 focuses on institutional quality and good governance, especially in terms of strengthening the public sector, and it details challenges related to the design and implementation of a sovereign wealth fund, which the international experience has shown to be vital to the success of resource-rich developing countries. Chapter 4 explores how the government can leverage natural resource revenues to accelerate Guyana’s economic transformation and spur job creation. Chapter 5 evaluates strategies for transforming Guyana’s natural capital into human capital and reaching full coverage of basic services and infrastructure through investment in health, education, and social protection. The chapter highlights the constraints in human capital development and health facilities; even more critical that these are addressed in context of the current COVID-19 pandemic. Chapter 6 prioritizes interventions necessary to generate enduring gains in poverty reduction and shared prosperity. A key offering of the chapter is a spatial development package to address deficiencies in basic service delivery and infrastructure necessary to protect well-being and health of Guyanese citizens. To ground the analysis in the real-world experience of Guyanese communities, each chapter begins with a brief discussion of how the newfound wealth will affect the most vulnerable and marginalized households. 2021-01-06T15:21:59Z 2021-01-06T15:21:59Z 2020-11 Report http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/691761607528494981/A-Pivotal-Moment-for-Guyana-Realizing-the-Opportunities-Systematic-Country-Diagnostic http://hdl.handle.net/10986/34969 English Systematic Country Diagnostic; CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo World Bank World Bank, Washington, DC Systematic Country Diagnostic Latin America & Caribbean Guyana
repository_type Digital Repository
institution_category Foreign Institution
institution Digital Repositories
building World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection World Bank
language English
topic OIL SECTOR
INTERGENERATIONAL EQUITY
GOVERNANCE
INSTITUTIONS
STATE-OWNED ENTERPRISES
STRUCTURAL TRANSFORMATION
JOB CREATION
EMPLOYMENT
HUMAN CAPITAL DEVELOPMENT
POVERTY REDUCTION
INCLUSIVE GROWTH
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
spellingShingle OIL SECTOR
INTERGENERATIONAL EQUITY
GOVERNANCE
INSTITUTIONS
STATE-OWNED ENTERPRISES
STRUCTURAL TRANSFORMATION
JOB CREATION
EMPLOYMENT
HUMAN CAPITAL DEVELOPMENT
POVERTY REDUCTION
INCLUSIVE GROWTH
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
World Bank
A Pivotal Moment for Guyana : Realizing the Opportunities
geographic_facet Latin America & Caribbean
Guyana
relation Systematic Country Diagnostic;
description Guyana stands at the threshold of a new era. The recent discovery of vast offshore oil and gas (O&G) reserves and the start of production, is poised to fundamentally transform the structure of the Guyanese economy while generating an influx of fiscal revenue. Prior to the discovery, extractive industries and commodity exports already played a major role in Guyana’s economy and public finances. However, the mining sector created few jobs and had a limited impact on poverty reduction. The rise of the O&G sector poses unprecedented macro-fiscal management challenges while offering new opportunities to address longstanding development constraints. The development of oil-producing countries often comes at high cost of environment and climate change, which needs to be balanced. In addition, the country is now facing the challenges from the COVID-19 pandemic that will stretch the public health systems and highlight inadequacies of testing and treatment facilities. The SCD is organized into six chapters. Chapter 1 situates the development of the oil sector within Guyana’s broader economic, social, and political context. Chapter 2 estimates the magnitude of fiscal revenues from the oil sector, along with alternative cost scenarios, and the implications of alternative strategies for allocating these revenues and considers how policies can mitigate the macro-fiscal and environmental risks posed by the sector. Chapter 3 focuses on institutional quality and good governance, especially in terms of strengthening the public sector, and it details challenges related to the design and implementation of a sovereign wealth fund, which the international experience has shown to be vital to the success of resource-rich developing countries. Chapter 4 explores how the government can leverage natural resource revenues to accelerate Guyana’s economic transformation and spur job creation. Chapter 5 evaluates strategies for transforming Guyana’s natural capital into human capital and reaching full coverage of basic services and infrastructure through investment in health, education, and social protection. The chapter highlights the constraints in human capital development and health facilities; even more critical that these are addressed in context of the current COVID-19 pandemic. Chapter 6 prioritizes interventions necessary to generate enduring gains in poverty reduction and shared prosperity. A key offering of the chapter is a spatial development package to address deficiencies in basic service delivery and infrastructure necessary to protect well-being and health of Guyanese citizens. To ground the analysis in the real-world experience of Guyanese communities, each chapter begins with a brief discussion of how the newfound wealth will affect the most vulnerable and marginalized households.
format Report
author World Bank
author_facet World Bank
author_sort World Bank
title A Pivotal Moment for Guyana : Realizing the Opportunities
title_short A Pivotal Moment for Guyana : Realizing the Opportunities
title_full A Pivotal Moment for Guyana : Realizing the Opportunities
title_fullStr A Pivotal Moment for Guyana : Realizing the Opportunities
title_full_unstemmed A Pivotal Moment for Guyana : Realizing the Opportunities
title_sort pivotal moment for guyana : realizing the opportunities
publisher World Bank, Washington, DC
publishDate 2021
url http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/691761607528494981/A-Pivotal-Moment-for-Guyana-Realizing-the-Opportunities-Systematic-Country-Diagnostic
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/34969
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