President Ali calls on Private Sector to pursue opportunities aggressively

May 25, 2024 News

---

Kaieteur News – The private sector must pursue opportunities aggressively in light of the country’s rapidly growing economy, President Irfaan Ali has said. The President was at the time speaking at the Private Sector Commission’s (PSC) Annual General Meeting (AGM) held at Marriott Hotel, Kingston on Wednesday.

The Head of State charged businesses to expand the ‘Guyana brand’, not only locally, but regionally and internationally.

“We have positioning, we have a sense of presence, we have networking, and we have influence. We don’t necessarily have to take a lot of pushing around now,” he told the room full of private sector representatives.

Further, President Ali spoke of the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME) and the free movement of goods and services within the Caribbean bloc.

“There is one country in this Region that has always allowed full and free movement of capital, of people, of goods and services and that is Guyana. There is no other … and we can put it to the test,” the President said while adding that Guyana’s recent success in the oil sector has created several opportunities.

The President said that the only way Guyana can take full advantage of the opportunities that exist is to “…build companies, consortiums with other countries that can go after regional and global opportunities also.”

Similarly, Chairman of the PSC, Komal Singh emphasized that the private sector has to capitalize on the opportunities to make sure that Guyana’s goods and services can reach the boundaries outside of Guyana easily.

He pointed out that the PSA will work continuously with the government and Region to remove all non-tariff barriers so that the local goods and services can enter regional and global markets.

“We need to go and analyse those and work aggressively to make sure we have them removed as quickly as possible,” Singh said.

Last week, Kaieteur News reported that approximately US$100,000 worth of packaged milk and US$40,000 of flavoured bottled water produced by Demerara Distillers Limited (DDL) was denied entry into Trinidad and Tobago.

Executive Chairman of DDL, Komal Samaroo called an urgent press conference then to ventilate his concerns regarding what he described as “extremely onerous and stringent processes” for the importation of animal and animal-based products into Trinidad and Tobago.

In March this year, DDL exported four 20-foot shipping containers to T&T based on an evaluation of the Trinidad Market by a Trinidadian business enterprise. The company said it has always utilised the services of a partner in the market who is knowledgeable of the regulations.  The DDL Chairman explained that while two containers of packaged milk products were denied entry and returned to Guyana, the bottled water products have been restricted from sale pending the completion of an “unconventionally exhaustive examination” of the products.

He said on May 13, DDL engaged with a team from the Ministry of Trade of Trinidad and Tobago to discuss the rejection of its milk exports.

“We were advised of an extremely onerous and stringent process for the importation of Animal and Animal- based products based on provisions of Trinidad and Tobago’s Animal Disease and Importation Act 2020,” he said.

Samaroo told reporters that his company adhered to the regulations as advised by their Trinidadian expert, however the company was unaware of the additional requirements.

In fact, Samaroo posited, “DDL find these requirements contrary to the spirit of intra-regional trade especially since we are reliably informed that Guyana has no such reciprocal requirements for the importation of similar products from Trinidad and Tobago.”

DDL currently exports the same products to three other Caribbean states including Suriname, St. Kitts and Barbados and has not encountered such barriers to trade.

The Chairman said that the Chairman of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), President Irfaan Ali was informed of the situation and was shocked and is committed to resolving the issue. To this end, Samaroo explained, “If you are going to accept as a norm, different set of rules and different standards then we can’t have free trade. It has to be on a common basis. The European Union, the North American Free Traders, all on common basis. You can’t have a set of rules that an exporter to your market has to go through these hurdles and then you have ready access to everybody else. It is wrong.”

Kaieteur News asked the Samaroo whether he was calling for a standard to be set across CARICOM for the import and export of products among member states.  He responded, “I am calling for whatever it takes to allow even access to each market.” When asked if this would be a suggestion to government, he said, “absolutely.”

---

• CARICOM, DDL, Komal Singh, President Irfan Ali, PSC

---