As Guyana channels unprecedented oil revenues into highways, bridges, hospitals, hotels, schools and housing developments, STEMGuyana Founder and Executive Director Dr. Karen Abrams is warning that the country’s construction boom, while transforming the physical landscape, risks becoming an end in itself rather than the foundation for long-term economic development.

In an opinion column-The Construction Boom is Not a Development Plan– published by the Kaieteur News, Abrams argues that construction should serve a broader national development strategy, cautioning that roads, buildings and other infrastructure alone cannot sustain prosperity unless they create productive industries, quality jobs and lasting economic opportunities.

Her intervention comes as successive national budgets have devoted record sums to infrastructure. Since returning to office in 2020, the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) Government has made public infrastructure the centrepiece of its development agenda. Budget 2024 allocated billions of dollars to roads, bridges, sea defences, housing and public buildings. Budget 2025, valued at $1.382 trillion, continued that trend, while Budget 2026—the country’s largest at $1.558 trillion—allocated approximately $196 billion for roads, bridges and transport infrastructure alone.