The World's Fastest Growing Economy

Writing by Sam Denby and Tristan Purdy
Editing by Alexander Williard
Animation led by Max Moser
Sound by Graham Haerther
Thumbnail by Simon Buckmaster

References

[anoriolkoyt]

As a Guyanese-American, I'd like to point out a few major points regarding Guyana's geopolitical position.
1) As a (flawed) secular democracy, its legislative, and judicial tradition most aligns with that of the US among all the major oil & gas producers.
2) Its not part of OPEC
3) Guyanese, on average, have a neutral-to-positive view of the US, which is steadily improving.
4) Its not part of OPEC
5) Its in the US's backyard.
6) Its not part of OPEC
7) The US has already started military exercises and training with the Guyanese armed forces.
8) Its not part of OPEC
RESULTS: The US is positioning itself as a major investor, backer, and partner which will further aid in its growth and political stability, while also allowing the US to have its very own oil producer in its pockets (the US has been shifting towards gas for years now, having a strong partner for oil is in their national interest. Keep in mind that the oil is only partly processed in Guyana, alot of of it processed in Louisiana and other Gulf coast states)
EDIT: If Marco Rubio is confirmed as secretary of state, you can expect further support since Rubio is very much anti-Venezuela, and who will be backed by a politically agressive US president that is very much pro fossil fuel.
Also: Its not part of OPEC
EDIT 2: One very important thing to point out : Even though Guyana is geographically a South American country, it is economically, culturally, politcally, historically, etc, an "english carribean" country. All its cities are on the coast and any access to its Spanish or Brazillian neighbhors is nigh impossible due to the Amazon rainforest. Its in the same category as Jamaica and Trinidad.

[Blamula.]

lets go a new video to watch while eating

[drkalamity]

Watching this from Georgetown Guyana at this very moment, what timing! I went to that Starbucks this morning and as a native New Yorker I can confirm the prices. The last time I was here was 10 years ago and the change is quite literally unbelievable. It’s wonderful to see my country coming up in the world - it’s starting to get to the point where I don’t have to explain what/where Guyana is to Americans anymore which is proof in and of itself. Also just want to point out that it’s pronounced “guy-anna” not “gee-yana”.

[peterspyer]

18:26 My geoguesser skills were heavily triggered by the road sign clearly showing the road was in Brazil while talking about Venezuela

[ybokors]

12:09 "more than 50% of Guyanese live outside of Ghana" well yes, why would they all live in Ghana.

[rapidthrash]

Turning to the Norwegians was a smart move

[babygirlmarx]

As a Guyanese I'm waiting desperately for at least one of these youtubers to pronounce the name of my country correctly

[bubbledoubletrouble]

0:41 Counterpoint: The Marriott in Times Square isn't very good

[xrydersx]

This country is now for the wealty and not the poor or middle class. Sure, it's looking great with it's rapid development but the lower and middle class are feeling the hardship of higher costs of living. Like this video said some products are way more expensive than of America. These huge development is to provide for the international investors. So it would be great to also highlight the burden the lower and middle class people are suffering from

[annekeener]

It’s interesting hearing about the cracks in Guyana trying to be democratic. The pessimistic read would be that people are trying to drag Guyana down into corruption and despotism and will eventually succeed similar to how Venezuela fell. The optimistic read is that Guyana’s institutions were strong enough to block these attempts and can only get stronger, preventing corruption and autocracy from taking full root. It’s going to be interesting to watch it play out.

[tigrepalenque]

Venezuela has over 100 years of petrol exploitation, in that time the country did go through a very rapid "development", schools, hospitals, highways, etc, the usual. As the prices of oil rise and crash through the decades, for us that lived there we could feel, see the impact, again conditions of buildings, roads, schools, hospitals, public housing etc. Several major problems, one that was mentioned here, the dependance on a sole source of income, OIL, agriculture was pretty much abandon at a macro economic level, Venezuela imported food from Colombia, Brazil, US, etc. Other industries were developed but not to the level and capacity that they should have been. I mean anyone who has visited Venezuela properly can see the infrastructure (either functioning or in decay or closed down). But they (the administration/government, not just the current one, ALL of them since the 1920s) could have done much more to diversify the economy. It was such a rich country that it had a huge influx of immigrants from all over South America and Europe at different periods last century. But the people working in the oil industry (after the US did the original exploration and set up), from engineers, to specialised tradespeople and administrators were all Venezuelan. Those specialised engineers and workers are now working internationally, that is how well prepared they are. And going back to agriculture, the point is that the only places that were highly developed were the main cities, or those linked to the metallurgic industry, so Caracas, Maracaibo, Puerto Ordaz. The rest were left on a standstill. Which is sad. Because you need your country folk to also have good schools, services, roads, etc. That is why people migrated out of the countryside. They were seeking a better livelihood. So yeah. I'm not an economist, I'm an anthropologist, so I can only describe it from the side of human condition and every day life. Oil is not the curse. Poor planning and politics is the curse.

[chillin]

Frankly, my view as someone who goes there and to other Caribbean countries: i dont know. The country has major problems with infrastructure (thank Burnham for killing the train lines built by the British), and is lacking in usable highways to the extent that entering the capital city from any suburbs is a ridiculous commute in traffic along a three lane highway. Lots of roads even in nice neighborhoods are still dirt tracks. House prices are absurdly high because of all the extremely wealthy people moving in, but its not creating a natural division of wealth for the native population. We saw a shell of a house, and the owner told us she wanted 500k. The country is characterized by a rigid racial division (again thanks Burnham) where the two major ethnic groups (afro guyanese and indo Guyanese) do not properly mingle, and many other minorities have up and left for the most part (Chinese, Portuguese). Even in New York City, the Afro Guyanese literally live in a different part of the city to the Indo Guyanese, shared national heritage be darned. The status of the Afro guyanese has also overall arguably declined in the country due to brain drain (meet a professional from the Caribbean and they are likely Guyanese), and elections are essentially ethnicity polls. I do not know whether the government is going to be seriously incentivized to fix these issues, especially if they simply get foreign money to retain power and influence. I remember visiting multiple times during the mid 2010s before any efforts were made to clear storm drains of shrubbery, which were causing crazy mosquito problems. I think that got fixed under former president Granger? The current government is keeping that up, which is good.

Other problems, I suppose, can be fixed. The economy is mostly cash-based, but East African and South Asian countries have demonstrated how to switch to digital banking systems without much usage of credit cards. But the real fear is climate change, as most of the country is below sea level, and it is right by the South Americn coast. The country only existed because the Dutch drained the land to make it tenable, back in the colonial era.

The expectation I have, honestly, is that Guyana might end up as a glorified city state. The governent investing into the main capital to attract foreign money, keep up appearnaces, and appease a wealthy elite--while the rest of the country is blighted by poverty and exploitation. That already sums up the experience in places like Angola, and many countries in Africa. Lets hope it doesnt happen to Guyana.

[Sahidable]

As a Guyanese person (first generation Canadian) it’s pretty cool to see my ancestral country in a video from a quality creator like you. Looking forward to watching the video!

[RobertFletcherOBE]

With all the bad news in the world its damn nice to see a country doing well!

[PankajRupani]

I hope they are doing what Norway has been doing, and benefitting people, and not what Venezuela or the Emirates are doing

[feartheamish]

Did business in Guyana back in 2010's amazing people and culture. Best Chinese and Indian food I have had in my life was there, and their pepper sauce is amazing. Glad to see them doing so well. The people I worked with where worried they would fuck up the oil finds.

[PASCALDAB]

America is currently plagued by the hydra-headed evil duo of inflation and recession. The worst part about this recession is that consumers are racking up credit card debt. In April alone, credit card debt went up 20% while rates have doubled in a year. Inflation is so high that consumers are literally taking debt for basic life necessities. Collapse has indeed begun..

[prtu_]

Honestly, good for them. It's refreshing to see a positive turnaround story

[weswest]

Just so people understand the daily output of Guyana, in the next year or two they will produce enough oil to power the entire west coast of America: CA, OR and WA. CA alone consumes around 800-900, 000 barrels per day and it’s the 5th largest economy in the world.

[Michaelonyoutub]

When you see a story about an oil nation trying to be successful and bring wealth to their people, the first question is always "do they have a sovereign wealth fund like Norway". It is truly an important first step. Oil is a big boom or bust industry, with so much wealth at some times and so little at others, and you need a way to smooth that out and move a lot of your income away from oil and start generating it through other means, so when the price of oil crashes you can handle the fallout and weather the storm and economic turmoil. The fund then can be used to generate money through investments for the country, but also to invest in the country, diversifying and improving the economy. It is truly a win win win scenario. The only flaw is the potential for corruption with such a large fund, luckily Guyana seems to have robust enough institutions to handle that stuff currently. You have to remain ever vigilant though as corruption can then infect those institutions.