Social conditions
State pension from the age of 65 has been around since the 1940s. There are also general health, life, disability, unemployment and maternity insurance.
Although some successes have been achieved through investments in drinking water, vaccination and the fight against malaria, measles, influenza and malaria are still common. At the beginning of the 1990s, there were 29 hospitals and 149 health centers and 1 doctor per 2,600 residents. Visit AbbreviationFinder to see the definitions of GUY and acronym for Guyana.
Social tensions are high and unemployment is constantly high. Real wages have been declining in recent decades and crime has risen. The government has tried to equalize the income inequalities, which has led many well-off and educated to leave the country. Check to see Guyana population.
Georgetown
Georgetown, capital of Guyana, South America; approximately 235,000 residents (2011). The town lies on the right bank of the River Demera and has an ethnically composed population. Like most of Guiana’s coastal area, the city lies beneath the sea level and is protected by dikes. Many houses are built on poles to catch the sea breeze in the tropical-humid climate. The 44 m high St. George’s Cathedral from 1889 is among the world’s largest wooden buildings.
Georgetown holds over a quarter of the nation’s population in addition to state administration and much of the economic activity. The city is home to the Caribbean cooperative CARICOM. Like other major cities in that part of the world, the city is experiencing increasing problems with traffic accidents and crime.
Founded by British settlers in 1781, Georgetown gained the status of capital in 1831 when Guyana was created. In the intervening years the area was alternately British, French and Dutch.
Economic conditions
The negative trend in international prices of the main export goods and a certain social discontent, often resulting in violent unrest, have held back the development of the economy; however, towards the end of the 20th century, the country emerged from the long recession, supported in the recovery by the rise in the cost of raw materials. The government has also launched a vast program of economic reforms, which includes numerous privatizations as well as the granting of new forestry and mining licenses, with the hope of attracting foreign capital in the main productive sectors. This strategy was also accompanied by an effort in favor of the industrialization process, in order to export goods with higher added value and not just raw materials or agricultural products. Sugar production and bauxite processing are the activities in which investments have been concentrated. The agricultural sector ensures about 40% of GDP and half of exports with two main productions: timber (the forest covers three quarters of the territory, 1,433,952 m were produced in 20063) and sugar (cane occupies most of the agricultural land). A decent source of income is also represented by shrimp fishing, but the quantity is decreasing. Mining ranks second in the economy of Guyana, which owns the largest open pit gold mine in the world. The sector also supplies diamonds and, above all, bauxite, which, despite having recorded a significant decline, from over 3 million tons per year in the 1970s to 2 million in 2007, continues to ensure a substantial share of exports.
Guyana mainly exports bauxite, rice and sugar, while it is forced to import artifacts of all kinds, fuels and food products; main trading partners are the United States, the United Kingdom and Trinidad.
Internal communications mostly use the navigable stretches of rivers; the roads cover 7,970 km, of which 590 km are paved. The main ports are Georgetown and New Amsterdam.