YouSaid · the spoken record

Irfaan Ali

lines on the record: 64
first: 2025-08-14
most recent: 2025-08-14
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“We keep just finding new species because of the way we have kept the environment intact. But Jane herself has been doing a good job at demonstrating the beauty of Guyana and our relationship with the UK. I know you hinted to that question has grown tremendously. We have a very strong relationship with the UK. David Lamy, of course, has a heritage in Guyana. But I would say that our relationship with the UK has grown enormously. not only from a trade and economic perspective, from a people-to-people perspective, from a cultural perspective, and from a human capital perspective. So we want to continue to work on this relationship like our relationship with the US, our relationship with the Middle East, our relationship with developing world, because we don't want to find ourselves as part of the global problem.”
2025-08-14 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 148. The President of Guyana: The Fastest Growing Economy in the World (Irfaan Ali) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“That is being swept under the carpet, and we need to change this. And you and I and the world need to work on changing this.”
2025-08-14 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 148. The President of Guyana: The Fastest Growing Economy in the World (Irfaan Ali) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I hope we could do this back again sometime. We can go deeper in some of the subject matters. I want to invite you to come and to see what is happening and to make your own evaluation. But I want you to also be a part of this biodiversity leadership that we are presenting to the world. Listen, the world has lost 60% of its biodiversity in the last 50 years. Biodiversity is the most important thing for medical advancement, for pharmaceuticals, for indigenous culture, indigenous identity, indigenous language, and for an ecosystem that will sustain life itself. We continue to lose this biodiversity, we're going to lose our ability to be food secure as a world because biodiversity is critically linked to food security. So biodiversity, it's the new frontier that must be. Address”
2025-08-14 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 148. The President of Guyana: The Fastest Growing Economy in the World (Irfaan Ali) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“When we were fighting for recognition in the world as a region, it is cricket that gave us that recognition. It is cricket that gave us that branding. What cricket did for tourism? The English tourists would come down to enjoy the beaches, that they got exposed to as a result of cricket in many instances. So cricket has given us too much for us not to be passionate about it. It has given us an identity. These guys, Clive Lloyd, Rohan Canai, Sobers, these guys hold in Courtney Ambros, Walsh, Marshall, they help to shape an identity as to who we are as a people.”
2025-08-14 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 148. The President of Guyana: The Fastest Growing Economy in the World (Irfaan Ali) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, we didn't get to that subject, but I'm very passionate about that. But cricket is such an important part of our identity.”
2025-08-14 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 148. The President of Guyana: The Fastest Growing Economy in the World (Irfaan Ali) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So when we talk about cricket now, it's not only the failure, and I'm not walking away from, I said, we have failed ourselves to develop the talent, to invest in the talent, the management of Western cricket is failing us. We have to review the expenditure profile, how much we're spending in the administration of cricket, rather than cricket itself. But we're not short on talent. We would have contributed significantly to developing this game to where it is today, to bring in the level of excitement and global presence and market presence to where it is today. And if the global system really want to take cricket into new markets like North America, you can't do that with the exclusion of the West Indies. So I think that there needs to be reform here also, and we need to understand the ICC need to understand that they have a responsibility to Western East in helping us to rebuild this product.”
2025-08-14 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 148. The President of Guyana: The Fastest Growing Economy in the World (Irfaan Ali) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Now we have built this is a poor developing country, a country that is now on the rise that decided we're going to invest in this for the region and for the world. So the Champions League was abandoned. We started the Global Super League. Now, when we have in two years built this product, the English Cricket Board and India Cricket Board, the two most powerful cricket board, decided to get together and talk about bringing back the Champions League without even any conversation with a country that has built back a global super league. Now, how fair is that?”
2025-08-14 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 148. The President of Guyana: The Fastest Growing Economy in the World (Irfaan Ali) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“They control, and we have to address this. It's okay. You can control the business ecosystem, but you cannot deny the rest of the world. You cannot deny the West Indies what is required. Can you imagine that if it does not make business sense to invest in West Indies cricket or to give more resources for the rebuilding of West Indies cricket, then something is wrong. We in Guyana, we are working hard to build a cricketing product to meet what the global changes are. And we don't get the support from India. So I want the English Cricket Board. And Guyana Cricket Board and the Australian Cricket Board to sit down and to say, how do we develop a product that gives that level of excitement? That is why we started the Global Super League.”
2025-08-14 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 148. The President of Guyana: The Fastest Growing Economy in the World (Irfaan Ali) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“An international system is now giving us a second blow, an English cricket. You have to be careful. Because I said to leaders from India that India is now who suffered the impact of colonization, is now using cricket to colonize the world. Because India does not allow their players to participate. You have to give UK credit. You have to give the UK credit. When they were at the top, at least they allowed their players and our players to play in all of their leagues. Many West Indian players develop their ability to play swing bowling because they were playing in your first class cricket at home. That is how they got the opportunity to play good swing bowling and to play spin bowling. India is a great cricketing nation. You have to give them credit. They have the population. But they have created a business ecosystem around cricket.”
2025-08-14 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 148. The President of Guyana: The Fastest Growing Economy in the World (Irfaan Ali) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Mike Arthurton, sorry. I talking about our own Atuton. When they played in the West Indies, at the end of their test series, I remember both of them showing off the blows that they took on their body, the bruise and the swelling on their body. But they stood up and they faced that bowling attack and they took the body blue. But those were exciting days for West Indies cricket. And as a result of the changes in the rules, the pitches changed. We didn't have the exciting fast bowling pitches anymore. Can you imagine Spin is the main thing now in the West Indies, right? From the history of fast bowling. That tells the story. So the international system failed us.”
2025-08-14 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 148. The President of Guyana: The Fastest Growing Economy in the World (Irfaan Ali) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I know you'll be excited about that. When we had the best fast bowling in the world, And no one could have batted our fastbowling. They changed the rules because our fast bowling was too furious. And no one could have stood up and faced our fastbowling. So they changed the rules for fast bowling. Nobody looks at that. So the world gave West Indies cricket a major blow by changing the rules because they could not withstand the strength of our bowling attack. They could not withstand the pace of our bowling attack. So the rules was changed to suit the powerful nations in cricket at that time.”
2025-08-14 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 148. The President of Guyana: The Fastest Growing Economy in the World (Irfaan Ali) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Let me make it clear West Indies is not short on talent. We are short on talent development and management. The board need to take responsibility and the system has failed us. We were so good, we were too good to accept that we don't need to invest in the development of the talent. So we fail to invest in the development of the talent. The talent exists. I want to make it very clear. We have amazing talent, but the development of that talent, the development of our pitches, the development of our facility, the expansion of the school program in cricket, and then the global change in cricket has affected us tremendously. We're a Calypso-like cricketers. We love the flamboyance. We love to play shots. We love to the excitement. And let us be also very honest. I want you to give me a few moments on that.”
2025-08-14 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 148. The President of Guyana: The Fastest Growing Economy in the World (Irfaan Ali) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“The representation is a foundational issue, but we always avoid the foundational debate and we go to the blossoms that are dropping because we always look to make the system seem as if it's functioning, seem as it is functioning by always picking the low hanging fruit. But the tree might be rottening from the root, but we are just picking the low hanging fruit and we're not taking care of the root. We have to get to the root and fix the root.”
2025-08-14 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 148. The President of Guyana: The Fastest Growing Economy in the World (Irfaan Ali) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Have to extend that. The Security Council must be expanded. Look at the population, the global population and representation. If it's based on representation, we always talk about democracy and the levels of representation in a democratic system. There is no democratic system in the Security Council when you look at the representation. So these things must be fixed. We can't postpone these problems. We have to fix these problems. And the way you fix these problems by frank conversation, accepting that the system is failing and accepting that there is need for reform and what areas of reform are critical. Every single time you have a reform of the system, it's about dealing with other issues except the issues that are foundational. The issue of the United Nations security council and the size of”
2025-08-14 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 148. The President of Guyana: The Fastest Growing Economy in the World (Irfaan Ali) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Be bold enough to lead to a situation where there is compliance with the rules, where there is acceptability of UN decisions, and where there is respect. The reform must be bold enough. The system cannot be hijacked. And many leaders in the developing world are of the view that the United Nations system is hijacked. If you look at the resources that they spend to the UN for some of these reports and a number of committees that you have doing reports on every single developing country, and then you have to go and answer before a committee on every one of those reports. Many of which are based on perception and not based on facts. These are things that need to be addressed. There can be different systems of reporting for different countries or different region. There must be a common system through which everyone is held accountable.”
2025-08-14 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 148. The President of Guyana: The Fastest Growing Economy in the World (Irfaan Ali) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, you know, the very conflicts that you're raising, let's look at Haiti, Ukraine, Gaza has really dealt a severe blow to the UN. Because if the UN is unable to meet its mandate, and basically that is what is happening, and that is what is leading to the conversation as to whether the UN is failing. Because if we are all part of this family, Then you will have difficulties in the future. Where does it stop? So is there a need for reform? Most definitely the current configuration points to the fact that we cannot get a United Nations system that leads to action, lead to a lot of reports, a lot of talk, but not action. And the reform of the UN must”
2025-08-14 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 148. The President of Guyana: The Fastest Growing Economy in the World (Irfaan Ali) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“We're talking about globalization and common borders and common market, but we have different rules for different segments of humanity.”
2025-08-14 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 148. The President of Guyana: The Fastest Growing Economy in the World (Irfaan Ali) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“When you look Alistair as the complexity of the world and you look at the resources that goes to Ukraine now, for example, as against the resources that went to Haiti for the last 40 years, and look at the fact that Haiti is one of the only countries that paid for its independence. People rightfully ask the question, are we living in two different worlds or are they two different standards that is governing the global policy making environment? And we have to avoid these discussions. And the only way we can avoid those discussions is to go back to setting out the basis on which global multilateralism, the big question is if multilateralism is failing today and how do we address this issue? Because if multilateralism fail, then globalization would also fail.”
2025-08-14 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 148. The President of Guyana: The Fastest Growing Economy in the World (Irfaan Ali) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Our position is clear on Ukraine. On Gaza, our position is also very clear. There's only one solution. That's a two-state solution. And what is happening in Gaza now, if there is anyone who cannot see it as genocide, cannot see it as the greatest indignity to humankind in modern day, then something is wrong with that person. What is happening in Gaza? It's unbelievable. But again, we believe that it's true dialogue, discussions, negotiation, and it's true the international community not only taking principled position on Ukraine and Gaza and Haiti, but also acting on those principled positions.”
2025-08-14 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 148. The President of Guyana: The Fastest Growing Economy in the World (Irfaan Ali) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So, first of all, on Russia, Ukraine, we have made our position very clear. Every country has a right to sovereignty. And every country's sovereignty must be fully respected. And I believe that the people of Ukraine and the Ukraine government deserve to live in their sovereign space. And I believe that there must be de-escalation and then this war must come to an end. It's not only costing Russia and Ukraine, it's also costing the world. I give this example. If you look at the resources that has to be diverted from the UK, the EU, from the US in this war, a lot of those resources could have been spent on humanitarian efforts on restoring democracy because every time you divert resources to conflict, you're removing global financing for important issues that are now postponed for a later date.”
2025-08-14 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 148. The President of Guyana: The Fastest Growing Economy in the World (Irfaan Ali) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And if you look at their history in the court, they start by saying, oh, the court doesn't have jurisdiction. They then went to the court and argued the case of jurisdiction. They lost twice after the law on the issue of jurisdiction. They say, okay, we will not respect the court. But they are participating fully in the process of the court. It's like playing cricket. And you were saying that, okay, we're going to play on the conditions of the UK for swing bowling. And after we realize we can't survive the swing bowling, we then say, oh, the conditions was not good enough. We're not accepting the results of the game.”
2025-08-14 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 148. The President of Guyana: The Fastest Growing Economy in the World (Irfaan Ali) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“This force with diplomacy as our forest guardrail, ensuring that we utilize every diplomatic effort, we utilize the global systems and institutions to advance our cause with the controversy that they raise. For us, the border has been completely settled in the 1899 Arbitral Award. The entire world knows this. There is nothing to support their claim, but we have encouraged them to take your claim, take this controversy to the International Court of Justice. But at the end of it, respect the outcome of the process.”
2025-08-14 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 148. The President of Guyana: The Fastest Growing Economy in the World (Irfaan Ali) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Let me start by saying we don't make noise at all about this because, you know, this controversy that is raised by Venezuela can destabilize development. It can destabilize progress. It can destabilize investment. Investors' confidence. So no country, no mature country, no democratic country, no rule-based country, no law-based country. Ever want this type of distraction. For them, it may be noise. For them, it might be speaking to their own local population. But for us, it has major effects. And they have acted in recent years on that noise. They have done things that are in breach of international law. that are in breach of good neighborly behavior. And we have always approached”
2025-08-14 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 148. The President of Guyana: The Fastest Growing Economy in the World (Irfaan Ali) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Dependent on oil and gas. And you have seen this. Look at the Middle East. You're seeing countries that you never thought would have built out a tourism sector the way they're building out. Now investing in that. You're seeing countries who have absolutely no natural assets. Is also stretching the argument. You know, many countries are taking great steps forward. The problem, though, is that all the stakeholders are not around the table. And we continue to make the same mistake year after year, make this a debate between two extremism and not a debate on what the plan should be and how everyone can be involved in that plan.”
2025-08-14 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 148. The President of Guyana: The Fastest Growing Economy in the World (Irfaan Ali) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Joseph with the least effect on climate change. And that will put us number one, basically, Ghana. But the question is, how do we find this balance? How do we agree that we will still need fossil fuel? How do we get the oil companies and their shareholders to understand that they too have a future that is sustainable in transitioning their investment, in moving towards renewable, letting them know that in this move to renewable, they will not lose market share, but find a mechanism in which they took and maintain their market share so that they see a viable future. They don't see a future in this transition in which their businesses will be wiped out, their economies will be wiped out, countries that are completely...”
2025-08-14 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 148. The President of Guyana: The Fastest Growing Economy in the World (Irfaan Ali) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“many countries that we will have a world without fossil fuel by 2050. It can happen. We have already seen the challenges that the UK is facing and Germany is facing with their massive transformation in terms of energy. So we know the science as the science tell us climate change is real. The science also, the numbers tell us that we can't achieve a fossil fuel world by 2050 or next 100 years. Fossil fuel will continue to play a role. The question is, who will produce it? So let's say, for example, that only 20% of the fuel mix of the world by 2050 will come from fossil fuel. And if climate is a main factor, then it must be the country that can produce...”
2025-08-14 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 148. The President of Guyana: The Fastest Growing Economy in the World (Irfaan Ali) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“When are we going to be mature enough to bring everyone around the table, bring in those who are deniers, bring in the extremists, bring in the oil and gas company, and let us work out a roadmap. Let us work out an agenda in which we will have more resources spent on research and development, technological advancement, adaptation mitigation. Let those companies play a greater role in climate financing, in climate financing access, so that the conversation is part of the entire ecosystem is part of the conversation. Now, let us look at the mixture of and why we have these extreme views. There is no way we can say in today's context where you still have energy insecurity in many countries, you have energy poverty in”
2025-08-14 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 148. The President of Guyana: The Fastest Growing Economy in the World (Irfaan Ali) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It is alarming, but we have to also go back to the structure of these meetings. And I'm very, you know, big on structure. So let's look at, you spoke about the far right. So there's the far right and the far left. What I would say extremism on both sides of the equation. We have not been able to bring all the stakeholders around the same table. So we can't say we want to address these climate issues. But the major emitters are those who consider to be the major emitters are not part of the conversation.”
2025-08-14 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 148. The President of Guyana: The Fastest Growing Economy in the World (Irfaan Ali) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Recoverable. We can move forward. The participation of the US in COP. When I say participation, I'm not talking about attendance. The full participation of the US and COP is key. It's critical, especially at this stage of our development, global development. And all of this is taking place around the world. The worst thing we want now is to have a conflict or destabilization of the COP agenda.”
2025-08-14 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 148. The President of Guyana: The Fastest Growing Economy in the World (Irfaan Ali) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So it is important, I think, that the international community find a mechanism through which we intervene to ensure that there is stability in all the relationship heading into COP and ensuring that the temperatures are brought down so that we can have an effective COP. For us to sit and pretend that this type of relationship would not have an impact on COP, I think we would be doing an injustice to what we want to achieve at COP. And here is where I think the developed countries, the top seven need to get together and to find a mechanism through which we get past this little hurdle. I think it's a little hurdle.”
2025-08-14 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 148. The President of Guyana: The Fastest Growing Economy in the World (Irfaan Ali) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So I want to first say that we are a very small country, but big things start with small ideas. And I believe that it is a thinking power and what you present that is large in terms of the global landscape. But you mentioned something very important. There is no doubt that the success of COP depends heavily on the developed world, especially the US, China and India. Their large economies and large population. And if there is strained relationship between the hosts of COP and the US, that definitely dampens the ability to get compromise or it definitely make it harder for us to get compromise and for us to have a negotiated outcome at COP. COP is Really a forum that try as far as possible to have a negotiated outcome. And the structure of the negotiation is that one major partner opting out the entire process falls.”
2025-08-14 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 148. The President of Guyana: The Fastest Growing Economy in the World (Irfaan Ali) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“The rest of the world. So we subjected ourselves. That is why we're the only forest that has carbon credit that are certified at jurisdictional scale. That is the entire forest. We're not talking about a forest in one area. This is jurisdictional scale in its entirety So it is on that basis that we started the global movement on getting valuation done and developing this carbon market for tropical forests. You know, at Glasgow, we were happy Prime Minister Boris supported at that COP Forest being on the agenda also. Today is a struggle to keep Forrest on the COP agenda and to get biodiversity on that agenda. But we have to continue that struggle.”
2025-08-14 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 148. The President of Guyana: The Fastest Growing Economy in the World (Irfaan Ali) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“This ain't working. This cannot work. There must be a system of compensating those countries who kept the forest and who are committed to keeping it. So we said, listen, we don't only want a market-based system to compensate those who have kept the forest, but we want to go a step further. We want to create a mechanism through which we are audited, through which our forest is monitored. Because we wanted accountability in the system. So we subjected our entire forest to an evaluation, to an audit. And that forest is monitored externally. Now, for a country to do that, that is the top 10 in mining, that has oil and gas, tells you about the credibility of what we are building. It tells you about the value about what we are building and how much we believe in this forest and what the forest offers.”
2025-08-14 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 148. The President of Guyana: The Fastest Growing Economy in the World (Irfaan Ali) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“World was not giving out any payment or any support for those who kept the forest. Instead, those who took the forest dung and built out their economy, they were now giving payments and incentive to replant the forest, and those that kept this forest intact for all of humanity were told thank you very much you did a fine job. So the system had great injustice and inequality. And that is because most who took the forest down were the powerful ones. They were the developed world. Those who kept their promise, their forests were those that did not have the capability to take it down, did not have the capital to take it down, and they were now told that, listen, man, thank you very much. You did a fine job. You know, keep that forest going. And we decided, no.”
2025-08-14 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 148. The President of Guyana: The Fastest Growing Economy in the World (Irfaan Ali) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“First of all, Alice, I have to congratulate you. Every time I answer one of your questions, you have resourced that answer to get another question that is even deeper and stronger. But that's good. That's good. I like this. So let's look at two things. One, where this started? We started Aristotle from a position where the world was giving incentives for reforestation.”
2025-08-14 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 148. The President of Guyana: The Fastest Growing Economy in the World (Irfaan Ali) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“The level of scrutiny today is far superior to the scrutiny at that time. So when you look at these countries, everybody say Norway has the best model. I love that model. I would love to use that model. But we're using a model that is relevant for today. One that invests in the very things that Norway invests in, but also safeguard resources for the future. And the structure of the fund itself. When you look at these funds that were established, they didn't have a parliament entry process. All the resources that they spent from this fund must go through the full parliamentary process. So it goes into the national budget and it is debated in parliament, audited by the auditor general. And all the revenue that comes in the fund, the minister of finance must declare it within a time frame. Otherwise, he is exposing himself to 10%.”
2025-08-14 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 148. The President of Guyana: The Fastest Growing Economy in the World (Irfaan Ali) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“That's a very, very good question. I don't believe in modeling. I believe in learning from different examples, but everyone, every country, we have our own challenges. And people will say, oh, Norway has the best sovereign wealth fund. Use their model. I would love to use Norway model. You know what is Norway model? For the first 20 plus years, nothing went into the fund. Everything went into the investment into the country, building a strong economy, building modern infrastructure, building a modern healthcare system, building a modern education system, investing in the diversification of the economy. I would love that model, but I can't do that in today's world. Because from day one, it is how are you ensuring this fund create opportunity for the next generation?”
2025-08-14 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 148. The President of Guyana: The Fastest Growing Economy in the World (Irfaan Ali) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Investing in civic education. We're investing in the arts and culture. We're investing in building out opportunities for families to come out together in communities so that we do not lose who we are. We do not lose what make our society strong. We do not lose our cultural identity. And that is important for me, the issue of corruption. Look, growth and development comes with many challenges. But if you look at what we are doing, we are building in a mechanism to avoid as far as possible leakages within the system. So we have set up a natural resource fund. That fund is managed in an arm's length away from government independently.”
2025-08-14 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 148. The President of Guyana: The Fastest Growing Economy in the World (Irfaan Ali) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So it has to be managed from two perspectives. Let's take, for example, the issue of greed. Greed has to be managed based on your value system. If our country changes its values, the value system of who we are, what make you a Ginese? What are the traits that make you a Guyanese? Then you can easily succumb to this notion that, oh, we are rich, we are wealthy, we can transfer resources to every family, and you forget that you are building for generations to come. You forget who you are as a people. You lose that foundational pillar of what makes us Chinese. And that is a conversation I've been having with the Guyanese people. That none of this must allow us to lose who we are. That is why we're in”
2025-08-14 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 148. The President of Guyana: The Fastest Growing Economy in the World (Irfaan Ali) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“We are persons would exchange produce, the barter system. And one of the good things is that we never lost that spirit of growing our own food or sustaining ourselves on our own food. We never lost that spirit of eating what we produce. Now we are going a step further by producing even what we import. Because as you know, a society improves as people's life improve their taste for different protocols also changes. So we want to ensure that we are building a food production system that addresses even those things that we are importing. So it comes from the struggles of our people and building inherently a system that first looked at survival and after we started to invest on the different people's progressive party civic government, agriculture became commercialized and now we have an entire”
2025-08-14 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 148. The President of Guyana: The Fastest Growing Economy in the World (Irfaan Ali) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, and a lot of credit must go to our farmers because even in difficult circumstances, when the farmers had no access to drainage and irrigation services, when they had no access to farm-to-market roads or subsidies for agriculture, they kept farming. In difficult circumstances, people learned to survive, you know this. So in that period of dictatorship, when I was a boy, for example, we would plant gardens in our backyard. I worked in the rice field with my relatives. So you learn to be versatile. You learn to adapt. You learn to survive. And in that period that Guyanese families learn to survive, and many of them survive because of a kitchen garden, many of them survive because of a small farm. And then the survival then led to family. family and individual survivor then let the community survival.”
2025-08-14 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 148. The President of Guyana: The Fastest Growing Economy in the World (Irfaan Ali) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“On the quality of the mining claims. We're the number one country in forest management and the carbon market. Maybe the only country that has a structured carbon market from a tropical forest. We are now seeking to lead the world on biodiversity. We're the only country that can feed ourselves globally. And we're looking to become the food capital of the region. We are investing in human capital, as I said, as important means of transformation. So we are using this revenue to build an economy that is broad-based, an economy in which ecotourism, food security, energy security, climate security will be our major plank.”
2025-08-14 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 148. The President of Guyana: The Fastest Growing Economy in the World (Irfaan Ali) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Wealth is created depending on how you invest that revenue. So for us, the revenue from oil and gas must be invested, invested in reducing the cost of living, eliminating poverty, building modern infrastructure, giving the people of the country and the region, because our prosperity must lead to the prosperity of the region. The best access to health care, best access to education, increasing disposable income, reducing taxes, and investing in the other sectors of the economy that will make the economy broad-based, sustainable, and prosperous. Now, what do I mean? Let me give you some examples. Everybody speak about oil and gas. We are now in the top 10 countries for mining, in the top 10. This is based on reserve, and this is based on...”
2025-08-14 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 148. The President of Guyana: The Fastest Growing Economy in the World (Irfaan Ali) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So there can be major downside if you're a policy formula, your policy menu dependent on oil and gas. If you look at oil and gas and the revenue from oil and gas as your main source of wealth, or if you take that revenue literally and say it is wealth, that's the first mistake. The revenue from oil and gas is not wealth. It is revenue.”
2025-08-14 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 148. The President of Guyana: The Fastest Growing Economy in the World (Irfaan Ali) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Human resource information system gap would allow us to understand what gap exists and where are the potential areas we can recruit human capital from to fill this gap.”
2025-08-14 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 148. The President of Guyana: The Fastest Growing Economy in the World (Irfaan Ali) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Requires specialists, that requires specializations and a certain quantity of nurses. So whilst we are building out our capacity and capability to train nurses, pharmacists, technologists, doctors to meet this future requirement in the medium term, we will have and we have major shortages. And we have been recruiting. So we are now finalizing this human capital strategy that will be used to structure the education system to deliver what we want now in the future, but also to examine the gap that exists.”
2025-08-14 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 148. The President of Guyana: The Fastest Growing Economy in the World (Irfaan Ali) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“That's a big part of the strategy. So we are now finalizing that human capital strategy, which is linked to the migration strategy and the type of human capital that we need. And you know the world is going through a crisis in healthcare, for example. Nurses are moving around globally. In the UK, the UK is recruiting heavily. In the Caribbean, in Guyana, we've all suffered from that. So we have that same challenges because we are building out a modern healthcare system.”
2025-08-14 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 148. The President of Guyana: The Fastest Growing Economy in the World (Irfaan Ali) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“You won't feel it religious pressure. You feel as if you're in a very happy environment because Guyanese are like that. They're very happy people, very life-oriented in that they try as hard as possible to strike that balance in life. Culturally, from a work perspective, although I believe that our work”
2025-08-14 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 148. The President of Guyana: The Fastest Growing Economy in the World (Irfaan Ali) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Through all the difficulties from slavery, colonization, a long period twenty eight years of dictatorship, one of the things that we have been able to do is to keep that level of tolerance. Keep that level of togetherness and understanding at a manageable level. So today we are, I think, it's totally integrated. You have a seamless transition between the different cultures, the different religion, the different ethnicity, and the new generation of Guyanese that are coming up.”
2025-08-14 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 148. The President of Guyana: The Fastest Growing Economy in the World (Irfaan Ali) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Also defending themselves. The main opposition primarily use race and ethnicity as their main mobilization tool. We use national development, national policy and the unity platform. So the fact that a minority, a Muslim person, can be elected as president tells you a few things, tells you about the level of tolerance in our society, tells you about the acceptance of humanity because our country more is a demonstration of humanity, how we value humanity. And maybe because it's how we are placed in South America, but very much a part of the Caribbean, our music, our art, our food is complex in some cases because of the mix that comes with it. But we have been able”
2025-08-14 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 148. The President of Guyana: The Fastest Growing Economy in the World (Irfaan Ali) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source