THE GEOGRAPHY (Foreign Office UK)
Area: 214,970 sq. km, 82,980 sq. miles
Population: 689,980 (2002 est.)
Capital City: Georgetown (population
250,000)
Nationality: Guyanese
Languages: English, Amerindian dialects,
Creole, Hindi, Urdu
Religions: Christians 50%, Hindu 35%,
Muslim 10%, and Other 5%
Ethnic Groups: East Indian 50%, black
36%, mixed 7%, Amerindian 6%, white
and Chinese 1%
Currency: Guyanese dollar (GYD).
Approximately 300 GYD to 1 UK pound
(July 2003).
Major Political Parties: People's
Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) and
People's National Congress (PNC)
Government: Republic within the
Commonwealth
GEOGRAPHY
Guyana is located in northern South
America, bordering the North Atlantic
Ocean, between Suriname and
Venezuela. Guyana's terrain is mostly
rolling inland highlands with a low
coastal plain, rain forest and in the
south savannah. The climate is tropical,
hot, humid, and moderated by
Northeast trade winds. Guyana has two
rainy seasons (May to mid-August,
mid-November to mid-January). Flash
floods are a constant threat during
rainy seasons.
THE HISTORY (Foreign Office UK)
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 1831c,
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 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
Amerindian population lives in the
country's interior.
BBC News Online country timeline
POLITICS
Guyanese politics has occasionally been
turbulent. The first modern political
party in Guyana was the People's
Progressive Party (PPP), established
on January 1, 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
1963, 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
February 23, 1970. From December
1964 until his death in August 1985,
Forbes Burnham ruled Guyana in an
increasingly autocratic manner, first 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
two 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 October 5, 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 October 9, 1992.
When President Jagan died in March
1997, Prime Minister Samuel Hinds
replaced him in accordance with
constitutional provisions. President
Jagan's widow, Janet Jagan, was
elected President 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.
National elections were held on March
19, 2001 (next elections to be held
before March 2006). Incumbent
President Jagdeo won re-election with
a voter turnout of over 90%. The PPP
obtained 34 seats, the PNC 27, and the
minor parties 4. The elections
attracted a good deal of international
attention with election observers being
sent from several international
agencies including the UK. The elections
themselves passed off peacefully –
isolated incidents excepted – but in an
atmosphere of tension. Afterwards,
there was serious violence. But the
post election period has marked the
start of meetings between the
President and the Leader of the
Opposition, the first in recent years.
This dialogue has been widely
recognised as a useful step.
At 35 Jagdeo became the youngest
Head of State in the world. To date he
has presented himself as a leader
determined to bring change. The main
developments under his Government
have been his proposals for joint action
with the private sector; his repeated
calls for political healing; his decision to
hold occasional cabinet meetings
outside the capital and his desire to
give Guyana a more important role in
the region.
THE ECONOMY (Foreign Office UK)
The poor performance of the economy
since the inward looking, state-led
strategy pursued in the 1980s has left
Guyana a Highly Indebted Poor Country.
Guyana relies heavily on the sugar
industry, which has accounted for
more than 10% of GDP in recent years,
and is attempting to obtain
concessionary finance from the World
Bank.
Severe drought and political turmoil
contributed to Guyana's negative
growth of -1.8% for 1998 following six
straight years of growth of 5% or
better. Growth came back to a positive
1.8% in 1999 and 3% in 2000. Underlying
growth factors have included
expansion in the key agricultural and
mining sectors, a more favourable
atmosphere for business initiatives, a
more realistic exchange rate, a
moderate inflation rate, and continued
support by international organisations.
President Jagdeo is taking steps to
reform the economy, including drafting
an investment code and restructuring
the inefficient and unresponsive public
sector. Problems include a shortage of
skilled labour and a deficient
infrastructure. The government faces
the challenge of managing its sizeable
external debt and attracting new
investment.
Many major projects in Guyana are
partly or wholly funded by donor
agencies. For example, Guysuco (a
sugar company wholly owned by the
government but run on a management
contract with Booker) is in the process
of expanding sugar production and
building a new factory for processing.
The World Bank will fund the factory
construction. The European
Commission in Guyana recently agreed
to make significant sums available for
the repair of sea defences. CDC/ESBI
are joint partners with the government
of Guyana in owning the sole electricity
generation and Supply Company –
Guyana Power and Light. Grenada
owns and operates the largest hotel in
Georgetown.
BASIC ECONOMIC FACTS
GDP: $2.5billion (2002 est.)
Per capita GDP: $824 (2000 estimate)
Annual Growth:2.8% (2001 estimate)
Inflation: 6% (2001 estimate)
Major Industries: bauxite, sugar, rice
milling, timber, fishing (shrimp),
textiles, gold mining
Major Trading Partners: US, Canada,
UK, Netherlands Antilles, Jamaica,
Trinidad and Tobago, Japan
Trade Partners UK country profile:
Guyana
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
Guyana's relations with its neighbours
Guyana has long standing territorial
disputes with Venezuela and Surinam,
which resurfaced in during 1999/2000
resulting in increased tension.
Venezuela claims all of the area west
of the Essequibo river. Surinam claims
the area between New (Upper
Corentyne) and Corentyne/Kutari
[Koetari] rivers (all headwaters of the
Corentyne).
The UK is a member of the
Commonwealth Ministerial Group on
Guyana formed in 2000 to offer
support to the Government of Guyana.
The group has met once at ministerial
level and on several other occasions
with officials only. It last met in London
in December 2000. Primarily set up to
discuss the Venezuela dispute, it has
also discussed the dispute with
Surinam.
Guyana's relations with the UK
The UK and Guyana have excellent
relations and the UK seeks, with other
donors, to play a role in providing
support to the government.
There is wide-ranging co-operation
between the two governments on many
subjects. The UK has contributed to
reform of the police, prisons and
judiciary as well as helping to ensure
that the recent elections were
peaceful.
Guyana hosted a successful
UK/Caribbean Forum in April 2002.
Key themes of concern to the
Caribbean - regional security,
trade/economic issues, inward
investment, environment, HIV/AIDS,
education, culture, administration of
justice - were discussed. The Forum
followed up on discussions the Prime
Minister had with Caribbean Heads of
Government at CHOGM. Relations
between the UK and the Caribbean now
take place on three levels - Heads of
Government, Foreign Ministers, and
Officials - which has enabled the
relationship to be deeper than it has
been in the past. The UK considers it
important that the Caribbean side
continues to engage at Head of
Government level.
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