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South America and South Atlantic Islands
Guyana |
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Last reviewed: 6 June 2008 |
Country information
GUYANA TODAY
Country Facts
Area: 214,970 sq km, 82,980 sq miles
Population: 751,000
Capital City: Georgetown(population about 250,000)
Nationality: Guyanese
Languages: English, Amerindian dialects, Creole
Religions: Christians 57%, Hindu 30%, Muslim 7%, and Other 6% (2002 census)
Ethnic Groups: East Indian 43%, African/black 30%, mixed 17%, Amerindian 9%, white and Chinese 1% (2002 census)
Currency: Guyanese dollar (GYD). (November 2007 420 GYD to 1 UK pound)
Major Political Parties: People's Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C), People's National Congress/Reform (PNCR) and Alliance for Change (AFC).
Government: Republic within the Commonwealth
Head of State: President Bharrat JAGDEO
Prime Minister: Hon Samuel HINDS, MP
Foreign Minister: Hon Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett, MP
Membership of international groups/organisations including: CARICOM, WTO, OAS, ACS, ECLAC, United Nations, the Africa-Caribbean-Pacific (ACP group), the Commonwealth, the Group of 77, the Organisation of Islamic Conference, Non-Aligned Movement, the Rio Group.
DID YOU KNOW?
- Guyana is part of the 'Guiana Shield' which, together with the adjacent Amazon Basin, is the largest equatorial forest in the world.
- In 1993, the Government of Guyana, in conjunction with the Commonwealth Secretariat (amongst others), formally launched the Iwokrama International Rain Forest Programme. Guyana allocated 360,000 hectares of its tropical rain forest for an international programme to preserve the site's unique biodiversity, and to study and develop methods and techniques for the sustainable use of tropical rain forest resources. HRH Prince Charles is the Patron of Iwokrama and the Chairman of the Board of Trustees is Mr Edward Glover, a former British High Commissioner to Guyana.
- It is generally agreed that the name Guyana is derived from an Amerindian expression 'Guiana', which means 'land of many waters'.
Environment
Amongst the current environmental issues facing Guyana are deforestation and water pollution from mining activities and solid waste sewage.
Guyana is party to the international environmental agreements on Biodiversity, Climate Change, Desertification, Endangered Species, Law of the Sea, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Tropical Timber 83 and Tropical Timber 94.
In September 2007, during a presentation at 'The Leadership Challenge of Climate Change' convened by the United Nations in New York, President Jagdeo identified the need for a new global agenda to recognize (and compensate) the contributions of standing forests towards addressing climate change through avoided deforestation, carbon sequestration and ecosystem services.
He pointed to Guyana's vast, intact forest resources as a critical asset base for global climate change mitigation and offered to maintain extensive portions of Guyana’s forests in their pristine state, developing a forest management approach based on conservation and sustainable harvesting and utilization.
He added that with 90% of the population on the coastal belt one metre below sea level, Guyana was particularly vulnerable to climate change, and its vulnerability was vividly demonstrated by a massive flood in 2005 which was estimated to have led to losses equivalent to approximately 60% of the country's GDP.
ECONOMY
Basic Economic Facts
GDP: Approximately US$870 million (US$782 million in 2005)
Per capita GDP: Approximately US$1,147 (US$1,039 in 2005)
Annual Growth: 4.7% (2006)
Inflation: 7.2% (2006)
Major Industries: Sugar, bauxite, rice, timber, fishing (shrimp), gold mining, diamonds
Major Trading Partners: US, Canada, UK, Caribbean (especially Trinidad and Tobago) Brazil, China and India.
UK Trade & Investment Country Profile: Guyana
Guyana is a middle income country. Nominal GDP per capita stands at US$1,147 (2006).
The economy grew by 4.7% in 2006 after a period of negative growth in 2005 due to the effects of the widespread flooding in January/February of that year. Business confidence remains low. The management of certain part-privatised utilities, and public sector disatisfaction with low wage levels, have both proved problematic. Inflation stood at 7.2% in 2006 (6.3% in 2005), although it has accelerated sharply in the first half of 2007.
A former finance minister, President Jagdeo has tried to turn Guyana’s economy around. In September 2002, the IMF agreed a poverty reduction and growth facility (PRGF) allowing an initial US$7m in aid. This was supplemented in September 2003 by a further tranche of debt relief, and again in early 2004 when HIPC completion status was achieved. The agreement by the leaders of the G8 industrialised states at their July 2005 summit in Gleneagles, Scotland, to cancel about £31bn of debts owed by the world's poorest countries, saw Guyana have US$336m written off. And in 2007 the Inter American Development Bank granted Guyana a US$356.5m debt write off which effectively removed the country from its "highly indebted" status. However, recent multilateral borrowing could undermine this.
Since the agreement with the World Bank in 2000 to restructure the sugar sector (18% of GDP) to be better able to compete with the rest of the world, Guyana has introduced a number of reforms including the construction of a new state-of-the-art sugar factory at the Skeldon Estate in Berbice, which includes power generation from bagasse. Other measures currently being considered include a distillery and the production of ethanol. Since the November 2005 agreement on reforms to the EU sugar regime, which cuts the price obtained by ACP sugar producers by 36% over a four-year period, Guyana has had to speed up its planned reforms and is receiving transitional assistance from the EU to help bridge the funding gap. DFID also provided funding to help Guyana produce an Action Plan which set out its requirements for support during the transition period and with assistance for plans to enhance competitiveness.
Negotiations on an Economic Partnership Agreement between the EU and CARIFORUM concluded successfully before the 31 December deadline. Guyana will benefit from an additional quota of 30,000 tonnes of sugar to be shared between other Commonwealth Caribbean sugar producers.
Guyana has also successfully entered the organic market and efforts are being made to expand the tourism sector. Donor funded infrastructure projects are planned to improve roads, drainage, sea and communications.
Construction work on the Tacutu Bridge connecting Guyana to Brazil is now well underway and is expected to be completed in early 2008. Once finished, the bridge will open the south of the country to new markets. Northern provinces of Brazil would then export to the USA, Caribbean and Europe through Guyana. The economic benefits for Guyana would be substantial.
The decision by the UN’s Tribunal of the law of the sea to award two thirds of the disputed maritime territory on the border between Guyana and Suriname could also have a positive effect on the economy if the reserves of oil and gas that are predicted to lie in that area are proven. Further exploration is not expected to get underway until 2009.
HISTORY
Before the arrival of Europeans, the region was inhabited by both Carib and Arawak tribes, who named it Guiana, which means 'Land of many waters'. The Dutch settled in Guyana in the late 16th century, but their control ended when the British became the de facto rulers in 1796. In 1815, the colonies of Essequibo, Demerara, and Berbice were officially ceded to Great Britain at the Congress of Vienna and, in 1831, were consolidated as British Guiana. Following the abolition of slavery in 1834, thousands of indentured labourers were brought to Guyana to replace the slaves on the sugarcane plantations, primarily from India but also from Portugal (Madeira), Cape Verde and China. The British stopped the practice in 1917. Many of the Afro-Guyanese former slaves moved to the towns and became the majority urban population, whereas the Indo-Guyanese remained predominantly rural. The small but growing Amerindian population lives mostly in the country's interior.
BBC News Country Timeline: Guyana
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
Relations with Neighbours
Guyana has a long-standing border controversy with Venezuela. In 1962 Venezuela rejected a decision on the delineation of the border between the 2 countries which had been made by an international arbitration tribunal in 1899. It claims all of the area west of the Essequibo River. Guyana also has a border dispute with Suriname. Suriname claims the area between the New river (Upper Corentyne) and the Corentyne/Kutari [Koetari] rivers (all headwaters of the Corentyne). In February 2004 Guyana took a maritime border dispute with Suriname to the UN’s International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea. The Tribunal published its decision in September 2007, awarding two thirds of the disputed territory to Guyana.
Relations with the International Community
Guyana is a member of the United Nations, CARICOM, the Africa-Caribbean-Pacific (ACP group), the Commonwealth, the Group of 77, the Organisation of Islamic Conference, the Rio Group, was a founder member of the Non-Aligned Movement, and takes an active interest in international affairs. The then Foreign Minister, Mr Rudolph Insanally, was the first Caribbean diplomat to chair the UNGA in 1993.
Relations with the UK
The UK and Guyana have good relations and the UK seeks, with other donors, to play a role in providing support for poverty alleviation and good governance projects.
The 2 governments co-operate on a wide range of subjects, and they have recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding on Security Sector Reform (SSR). Under the MoU, the UK will begin implementation of a far-reaching Action Plan on SSR which seeks to help provide substantial additional security to the people of Guyana. For its part, the Government of Guyana has agreed to implement a number of measures aimed at strengthening parliamentary oversight of the process.
Transforming the Caribbean Economy
Chevening Scholarships
The British Government provides 1 Chevening scholarship for Guyanese students to pursue post-graduate studies in UK Universities. The aim of the scholarship is to enable young men and women to acquire skills of lasting benefit to Guyana.
Chevening Scholarships website
Recent Visits
Inward
President Jagdeo last visited the UK in November 2007 where is attended and addressed the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association Conference on Climate Change. He previously visited the UK in November 2006 to attend the Caribbean Investment Conference hosted by Lord Triesman.
Outward
- HRH Duke of Wessex visited in 2003.
- DFID Minister Gareth Thomas visited Guyana in October 2003.
- HRH The Duke of York visited Guyana in February 2004 as part of a wider visit to the Caribbean.
GEOGRAPHY
- Guyana is located in northern South America, bordering the North Atlantic Ocean, between Suriname and Venezuela.
- Guyana, with an area of 83,044 sq miles and a population of 751,000 (2002 census), is a sparsely populated country. Over 90% of the population reside in the narrow coastal plain that comprises only 5% of the total landmass. The interior is largely forested, with savannah along the southern border.
- The climate is tropical, hot, humid, and moderated by Northeast trade winds.
- There are 2 rainy seasons (May to July, December to January). Flash floods are a constant threat during rainy seasons.
TRADE AND INVESTMENT
Trade and Investment with the UK
Trade is in Guyana's favour. UK exports to Guyana for 2006 were £20.3m (£18.2m in 2005, fourth largest). The principal exports are chemicals, food products, machinery and manufactured goods. UK imports from Guyana for 2006 were £35.3m (£45.9m in 2004, third largest), almost exclusively food imports.
UK Trade & Investment Country Profile: Guyana
UK Development Assistance
Guyana receives substantial development assistance from the United Kingdom delivered through the Department for International Development (DFID). Guyana is the largest UK aid recipient in the Commonwealth Caribbean. DFID's current programme has a strong public sector reform theme, pursued across several areas which feature strongly in the Government of Guyana's Poverty Reduction Strategy. The focus has been on water and education, although this is now shifting towards security sector reform. DFID is also supporting efforts to promote political stability working with government, civil society, other UK Departments and international partners.
Department for International Development (DFID)
POLITICS
Guyanese politics has on occasion been turbulent. The first modern political party in Guyana was the People's Progressive Party (PPP), established on 1 January 1950 with Forbes Burnham, a British-educated Afro-Guyanese, as Chairman; Dr Cheddi Jagan, a US-educated Indo-Guyanese as second vice chairman; and his American-born wife, Janet Jagan, as Secretary General. In 1955 the PPP split and Burnham founded what eventually became the People's National Congress (PNC). Cheddi Jagan's PPP won the elections in 1957 and 1961 and he became British Guiana's first premier. At a constitutional conference in London in 1965, the UK Government agreed to grant independence to the colony but only after another election in which proportional representation would be introduced for the first time. Forbes Burnham became Prime Minister.
Guyana achieved independence in May 1966, and became a republic on 23 February 1970. From December 1964 until his death in August 1985, Forbes Burnham ruled Guyana in an increasingly autocratic manner, first as Premier, then as Prime Minister and later, after the adoption of a new constitution in 1980, as Executive President. During that time, elections were viewed in Guyana and abroad as fraudulent. Human rights and civil liberties were suppressed, and 2 major political assassinations occurred.
Following Burnham's death in 1985, Prime Minister (Hugh) Desmond Hoyte acceded to the Presidency and was formally elected in the December 1985 national elections. Hoyte gradually reversed Burnham's policies, moving from state socialism and one-party control to a market economy and unrestricted freedom of the press and assembly. On 5 October 1992 a new National Assembly and regional councils were elected in the first Guyanese election since 1964 to be internationally recognised as free and fair. Cheddi Jagan was elected and sworn in as President on 9 October 1992. When President Jagan died in March 1997, Prime Minister Samuel Hinds replaced him in accordance with constitutional provisions. However, President Jagan's widow, Janet Jagan, was elected President at elections in December 1997. She resigned in August 1999 due to ill health and was succeeded by Finance Minister Bharrat Jagdeo, who had been named Prime Minister a day earlier. At 35, Jagdeo became the youngest elected Head of State in the world.
National elections were held on 19 March 2001. Incumbent President Jagdeo won re-election with a voter turnout of over 90%. The latest elections were held on 28 August 2006. President Jagdeo was once again re-elected with an increased majority, although the voter turnout was much lower at 68%. The PPP obtained 36 seats, and the PNC22. A new political party, the Alliance for Change (AFC), led by 2 disaffected politicians (one Indo-Guyanese and one Afro-Guyanese) from the PPP and PNC, won 5 seats, and became the strongest third party in Guyana since 1964. Two other smaller parties won a seat each. The elections attracted a good deal of international attention with election observers being sent from several international agencies including the UK. Unlike the 2001 elections, when there was serious post-election violence, the 2006 elections passed off peacefully. In remarks prior to, and following, the election President Jagdeo promised to bring about Constitutional change and to foster an enhanced framework of political cooperation between parliamentary parties. The next elections must be held by 28 December 2011.
