Guyana has the world's highest oil reserves per capita

Guyana has the world's highest oil reserves per capita
Photo by Adam Gethin / Unsplash

The magazine 'Americas Quarterly' has recently published an article highlighting how Guyana, a country in South America, now has more oil per capita than any other country in the world. According to the International Monetary Fund, Guyana can now, theoretically, reach a per-capita GDP rivaling Italy or Japan at the end of this decade.

When the Guyanese President, Irfaan Ali, was asked on how the country plans to avoid the 'resource curse' that many other countries 'blessed' with resources fell into, he said:

“there is no resource curse; the resource is a blessing.....it’s a management curse, and we are doing everything to avoid that.”

Can Guyana strengthen it institutions, diversify its economy, distribute profits from oil to its citizens, all while fending off a geopolitical challenge on its borders?