Finance Minister Winston Jordan has urged budget agencies to consider Government’s policies when putting together their respective financial plans for the new year.
Speaking at the opening ceremony of a budget 2018 training sensitization workshop held at the Marriott International Hotel in Georgetown, Minister Jordan said: “We are once again at that time of year of the budget cycle, when agencies are required to revise and update their plans for the next four years. In the process of doing so, you will need to be cognisant of the vision of the Government in the context of the specific agency, and articulate your strategic goals and objectives as your contribution to achieving this,” Jordan told the representatives of state agencies.
He expressed the need for them to examine the progress of their work and ensure that their request for allocation of resources will directly and measurably contribute to the achievement and delivery of programmes.
Quoting remarks from budget 2016, Jordan said the policy, programmes, reforms and measures envisage in the budget were designed to achieve higher growth rates is an economy that has been growing higher rates with benefits. This, he said, will make the good life closer to reality.
“We cannot continue to have the sea-saw growth that has been witnessed over the past three decades and hope to be able to solve the economic challenges like unemployment and poverty. We have to be innovative in our approach, and bold in our measures if we are to build an economy that will stand on a foundation of granite,” Jordan said
In budget 2017, the finance minister had said Government has emphasised the importance of achieving a strong growth and accelerated development to the benefit of the people. In particular, he said, “We have resolved to pursue a growth strategy. We have to match the expectation of our people for a better life, but we will not be able to deliver if we stay in a foreign course”.
To do so, he said, would allow the confluence of adversity and challenge to continue to constrain the country from “seizing the opportunity to chart a new direction”.
Achieving the “good life is neither a mantra, slogan, nor abstract concept,” Jordan continued. It is rather a fixation; a constant reminder that Government was elected to improve the quality of life for the Guyanese people through the improvement in the quality and quantity of goods and services that must be delivered.”
