ABSTRACT
This chapter traces the evolution and ramifications of development planning in Guyana. The concept of development planning has several connotations and forms. In some instances, it has been used to denote a wide range of activities from the central management of the economies in communist countries to government sponsored forecasts by private groups in countries such as Sweden. Planning in Guyana, as in most Caribbean and developing countries, has been mainly a postwar phenomenon. Development planning is, therefore, seen in Guyana as a technocratic conception for the fulfilment of specific development goals. Any generally trained economist would agree that a developing economy that is primarily agricultural would have to depend a great deal on its agriculture for its long term development. The defects of the 1960-1964 Development Programme can be examined within the context of the entire planning effort between 1954 and 1964.
