Guatemala City, by Brenda Larios -AGN-. President Alejandro Giammattei presented the General Report of the Republic 2023 in an official ceremony, accompanied by his Cabinet of Government, where he mentioned the advances focused on the five pillars of government: economy, competitiveness, and prosperity; social development; governance and security in development; responsible, transparent, and effective State; and relations with the world.
The president stated, “Everything has a beginning and an end; it is time to account for our actions. Guatemala has been and will always be our main inspiration; to serve this country has been my greatest honor. Therefore, during these 48 months in power, I come with my head up high to tell you with real data how much progress the country has made.”
He emphasized his administration’s eminent effort to carry out an orderly, transparent, effective, and documented transition process, allowing the new authorities to evaluate and calculate the effects of the actions undertaken since 2020.
Economy, competitiveness, and prosperity
The actions under the economy, competitiveness, and prosperity pillar aim to promote medium- and long-term conditions that will gradually lead to sustained economic development.
The year 2020 was a challenging one. However, recovery from the effects of the coronavirus pandemic in 2021 allowed for a gross domestic product -GDP- growth of 8%. In 2022, the national economy was marked by growth higher than its potential, reaching 4.1%.
By 2023, the economic boost remained due to the country’s resilience. Therefore, economic activity is expected to return to its long-term growth of around 3.5%.
Social development
The Social Development pillar promotes equal opportunities in Guatemala, ensuring all Guatemalans have access to education, nutrition, and housing services.
According to the president, the school education subsystem served an annual average of 3.11 million students in the official sector in the different educational modalities and levels, and early education was strengthened by creating community child development centers to provide comprehensive care to children under four years old. The government ended the year with 1,491 centers serving 56,581 children.
In addition, USD 41.9 million was invested in community homes, childcare and development centers.
Governance and security in development
The government, committed to pursuing the common good and guaranteeing citizens the conditions to develop in a safe and healthy coexistence environment, established the strategic goal of improving the country’s governance for peaceful and harmonious coexistence in the General Government Policy.
As a result of these actions, authorities recorded a reduction of 4.8 points in the homicide rate compared to the rate recorded in 2019. In 2023, the number of municipalities registering no homicides for the entire year was 121 out of 340 in the country. It is equivalent to 35.6% of the total.
The Army carried out 880,000 air, sea, and land operations during this administration. In 2023, 11,307,752 bushes and shrubs, including poppy, marijuana, and coca, were eradicated.
Accountable, transparent, and effective State
The strengthening of government agencies resulted in an efficient and transparent state, with improvements in the civil service, the promotion of meritocracy, and a focus on accountability to fight corruption.
In 2023, the 14 ministries had their respective electronic government programs. In addition, eight presidential tours and a national gathering of mayors and executive authorities took place.
Relations with the world
President Giammattei also pointed out that in pillar five, Relations with the World, he promoted different interventions related to assistance to migrants, expanding the consular network in strategic locations within the United States and other countries, and promoting tourism.
In 2023, 1,72,381 Guatemalans in the United States benefited from passports, consular identification cards, personal identification documents, birth certificates, civil registration, and immigration orientation.
In 2020, by signing an interinstitutional cooperation agreement between the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Economy and the Guatemalan Institute of Tourism, a network of trade counselors was created, with 21 trade counselors.
Finally, President Giammattei thanked his Cabinet and the people of Guatemala for their trust in him at the polls in 2019.
