Latest update March 29th, 2024 12:59 AM
Apr 26, 2015 AFC Column, Features / Columnists
Twenty-three years in government and the PPP/C is just waking up to the realization that small- and medium-sized businesses play a pivotal role in the growth of most economies.
In twenty-three years of presiding over the economic fortunes of Guyana, incumbent President Ramotar has finally come to terms with this reality, at least via a verbal acknowledgement. He made some references to SME development in his speech to about 200 business owners gathered last week at the GMSA’s Business Luncheon.
Without providing any details, Ramotar is reported to have said that he “hopes” that small businesses will be able to move forward “without too much bureaucracy” … this from an incumbent President who has ‘presided’ over the affairs of state for the past three years.
He spoke about the private sector being involved in the National Competitiveness Strategy Council, and participating in partnership with the Government in the construction of a strategy paper to help Guyana to navigate through the CARICOM marketplace where our manufactured products are uncompetitive due to high costs of production.
A National Competitiveness Summit was held, but no National Trade Policy evolved. The high level of governmental bumbling and incompetence on matters of trade and economics is hard to comprehend in the face of the Private Sector’s clear understanding of the international marketplace and the existing barriers to trading Guyana’s products.
It was not too much to hope that in this 21st Century, with information on cheaper but technologically-advanced equipment for product-line manufacturing, power generation, open markets and other trade data so readily available, Guyana’s community of small business owners including farmers would have been larger and viable. But that is not the case today. It will, however, be the ‘case’ tomorrow under a Coalition government.
The business support bodies have long been requesting assistance from the government to remove the bureaucratic hindrances (Customs, Compliance certificates, excessive taxes and charges) they encounter on a daily basis, but to no avail.
Now on the 2015 campaign trail, the incumbent President talks the talk of small business (SME) development in which they had previously shown little interest. And he went on to declare that a new PPP government post-election will issue new licences for more commercial banks. This one is new, and it is left only to time to tell whether this promise will go the way of ALL other election-time PPP gaffes, i.e. nowhere.
The Coalition has made known its stated position, that in government one of its key priorities would be to provide the infrastructure to develop new and existing businesses, and to work closely with neighbouring South American countries and CARICOM to improve Guyana’s dismal revenue statistics. It is common knowledge that Guyana spends much more on imported goods than we earn from exported products. This imbalance is hard to comprehend when this country can boast of the most arable land in this hemisphere. Our capacity for food production outstrips that of any other country in CARICOM.
Our cattle farmers have been experiencing torrid times though. Over the past 10–15 years they have been finding it extremely difficult to transport beef and pork from the hinterland regions, especially from Lethem that used to be the hub of cattle farming, to the larger markets in the city and along the coast. As a result, the number of cattle farmers has dwindled and so have their value-added industries, e.g. leather tanning and salted beef establishments. We have ascertained that markets do exist in the Caribbean region for milk and meat products. The Coalition’s trade facilitators intend to approach the rebuilding of the cattle industry with some priority.
It is heart-rending to observe the thousands of pounds of harvested plantains, bananas, pumpkins, eddoes, yams and other agricultural products that are abandoned and left to rot on the Parika Stelling because farmers in the East Bank Essequibo, the Wakenaam, Leguan and Hog Islands, along the Essequibo Coast and in the fertile Pomeroon find it too costly to transport their goods from farm to markets in Georgetown and Berbice. They complain that they are forced to sell only a portion of their produce below break-even prices and the rest is left to rot on the ground or at the stelling. Their losses could be tallied to millions of dollars per week.
A visit to the farming communities on the Mahaica River and creeks tells a similar tale. Huge quantities of lemons and cherries that retail at such high prices in the city are left to rot on the ground because of the growers’ inability to move the produce from farm to market.
These are the areas that require governmental intervention, including the provision of affordable transportation facilities to move farm produce to markets and ports, and by sustaining bi- and multilateral trade talks and agreements with CARICOM states as well as the governments of Brazil’s southern regions.
Guyana’s population is small and our soil is arable. The opportunities for our farmers/growers, agro-processors and cattle owners to earn a lot more revenue from their produce are numerous if they receive the right kind of governmental assistance, the enabling environment that includes paved roads leading into farms and communities, and the realization of that contentious plan to properly surface the corridor linking Linden with the Guyana/Brazil border town of Lethem. The benefits that this road could bring to Guyana are numerous.
Guyana was told long ago that the governments and exporters in Roraima State, Manaus, São Paulo, Amazonia, Brasília and other southern Brazilian states were very willing to pave this and other main roads in Guyana. The rationale is simple – a route through Guyana’s territory to the Atlantic Ocean is shorter and less costly for them than trucking their produce through thousands more miles to their own Atlantic sea ports.
It is incomprehensible why the PPP/C government has dilly-dallied for years on the Brazilians’ 2009/10 proposal to: 1) pave this important corridor, and 2) to establish a Free Trade Zone at Lethem complete with capacious silos and warehouses. The possibilities for the development of Annai and the hundreds of communities in Regions 9 and 10 abound. The Coalition will revisit this beneficial Brazilian offer even though our neighbours have already turned to other coastal South American countries, including Suriname.
THIS IDIOT TELLING GUYANA WE HAVE NO SAY IN THE 50% PROFIT SHARING AGREEMENT WE HAVE WITH EXXON.
Mar 29, 2024
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