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Dear Editor
Guyanese are reminded that former President David Granger issued a proclamation declaring 20th December as ‘National Petroleum Day’ to be observed every year in Guyana.
In his address to the nation last year, Granger promised that “…the proclamation will remind us of our duty to protect the country’s patrimony and to ensure the sustainable management of finite hydrocarbon resources.”
Granger unveiled his framework policy for a ‘Decade of Development, 2020-2029’ a few days later, on 1st January 2020. The ‘Decade’ was intended to be a ten-year plan to intensify development, improving citizens’ quality of life and ensuring that petroleum resources would be utilized to provide the ‘good life’ for all. Every Guyanese would be expected to benefit from petroleum production, leaving no one behind.
The National Assembly had passed the Natural Resource Fund Act 2019, introduced by the APNU+AFC administration, to ensure that the country’s resource wealth “…benefits both current and future generations…” The Act would ensure that withdrawals from the ‘Fund’ will follow a balanced approach, prioritising investment in public education, public health, public infrastructure, public security, social protection and other social services and will support private sector development.
Granger’s proclamation emphasized that petroleum production would bring the prospects of a higher quality of life closer to Guyanese households, neighbourhoods and villages. The former President described ‘National Petroleum Day’ as a momentous event which should be commemorated in perpetuity.
Regards
People’s National Congress,
