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The Rest Is Politics: Leading

148. The President of Guyana: The Fastest Growing Economy in the World (Irfaan Ali)

The Rest Is Politics: Leading

Goalhanger

News, Government, Politics

4.63.2K Ratings

🗓️ 14 August 2025

⏱️ 60 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

How does Guyana balance its unprecedented economic growth, largely due to oil discoveries, with environmental sustainability? How does Guyana perceive and address the historical scar left by slavery? What has happened to West Indies cricket, and how does the future look? Alastair is joined by President of Guyana, Ifraan Ali, to answer all these questions and more. Join The Rest Is Politics Plus: Start your FREE TRIAL at therestispolitics.com to unlock exclusive bonus content – including Rory and Alastair’s miniseries – plus ad-free listening, early access to episodes and live show tickets, an exclusive members’ newsletter, discounted book prices, and a private chatroom on Discord. Social Producer: Harry Balden Video Editor: Josh Smith Assistant Producer: Alice Horrell Producer: Nicole Maslen Head of Content: Tom Whiter Exec Producers: Tony Pastor, Jack Davenport Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

Thanks for listening to The Restis Politics. Sign up to the Restis Politics Plus. To enjoy ad-free listening,

0:04.9

receive a weekly newsletter, join our members chat room and gain early access to live show tickets.

0:09.4

Just go to therestispolities.com. That's therestispolitics.com.

0:17.7

Welcome to the Restis Politics leading, and I'm absolutely delighted, sadly not with Rory,

0:25.2

but with Iifan Ali, who is the president of Guyana. In recent years, the country with the fastest growing

0:32.8

economy in the world, thanks in large part to recent discoveries of oil.

0:38.8

2020, growth 43.5%.

0:42.0

2021, 20.1%.

0:44.0

2022, 62.3.3.33.37.2. So a country that in 2015 was the second poorest in the entire hemisphere, second after Haiti,

0:57.3

now on track to have the highest GDP per capita in Latin America and the Caribbean by 2030.

1:03.0

So that's quite a story.

1:04.0

As to where it is, let me tell you, Guyana is up at the top end of Latin America.

1:08.9

It's bordered to the west by Venezuela, which has its own claims, hotly disputed on large parts of Guiana.

1:16.7

It's got a very close ally to the south.

1:18.4

That's Brazil and Suriname to the east.

1:20.9

But Guiana is proudly part of the Anglophone Caribbean.

1:24.9

English is the main language.

1:26.2

That's a legacy in part of colonial days,

1:29.1

which ended in 1966. And I'm pleased to say that cricket is the national sport.

1:34.6

There's another very big part to the story that we're going to talk about, and that is what's

1:38.3

worth protecting, because Guyan is 85% rainforest. And this is a country not much smaller than the UK but with a population of

1:48.1

800,000 1 million guineas approximately living abroad and if we the UK had similar forest cover

...

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