By Shirley Thomas
THE Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI) on Thursday launched its seventh Business Guyana Magazine 2016, amid fanfare, during a cocktail reception held at the Grand Savannah Suite, Pegasus Hotel, Georgetown.Titled “Business Guyana – 50 Years: 1966-2016. What Next?,” the highly glazed 96-page magazine is an Investors’ Guide to doing business in Guyana, and uses history to project the future.
The GCCI was established in1889 and celebrated its Golden Jubilee in 1939. The Chamber, on that occasion, was able to showcase its 50 years of service, not only to the commercial community, but to the country as a whole.
Notably, by that time, it had developed “a reputation for competence and efficiency, with a knowledge of matters that went beyond that relating to commerce and trade,” the Chamber said.
At this juncture, as Guyana celebrated its Golden Jubilee having attained independence in 1966, the Chamber thought it opportune to examine economic progress made to date, asking the question: “What Next?”
Past Chairman Lance Hinds noted that it is prudent to analyse where “we are” within the economic and political direction taken since independence.
“We at the Chamber believe that we are a nation at the crossroads in a social, economic and political sense,” Hinds contended, adding: “2016 finds us 5th in the CARICOM Community, in terms of economic capacity.”
Admitting however, that there has been progress at many levels, he nonetheless argued that it has been piecemeal. Hinds added too, that research has shown that over the 126 years of its existence, the private sector has not performed up to expectations.
“The years of speaking longingly about our potential, either as a location, or in terms of our economic resources now sound hollow … We are behind and will continue to stay if, as stakeholders we do not begin to address our various shortcomings honestly and holistically,” Hinds concluded in the editorial of the newly launched magazine.
Other speakers at the launch concurred that it was time for a paradigm shift, noting that the approach to manufacturing and export should not be business as usual, but that the private sector should aggressively pursue the export of non-traditional goods.
GCCI President Vishnu Doerga was happy to announce that the GCCI has had another record-breaking year, its membership having increased over the last year by 32, making a total of 184.
MORE FEMALE LEADERS
It was noted that members are fully involved in the operations of the Chamber, but a call was made for more female leadership at the level of the GCCI.
The Chamber will be moving to ensure that those members who do not enjoy the level of representation needed, can begin to do so. Work is continuing apace on strengthening their Business Information Eco System and encouraging Government to accelerate its expenditure, especially on approved monetary allocations.
They will, over the next few weeks, continue to work on their short, medium and long-term strategies for development.
Meanwhile, he said the Chamber is looking to the Ministry of Business for information in terms of national economic development.
Meanwhile, Minister of Business Dominic Gaskin said while it would seem so, the first 50 years of Guyana’s independence are not that complicated. In fact, he said, Guyana has been pretty consistent in its approach to managing this diverse and wealthy country that “we all own or should own,” but said there must be a genuine desire to learn from “our major past mistakes” – the most useful lessons for building a better future.
Minister Gaskin said he is of the view that Guyana’s failure to advance to a better global position, is largely as a result of the prevailing political attitude which emphasised political party over country.
In this context, the minister affirmed: “I believe we can take the most valuable lesson and apply it going forward. And that lesson is that Guyana is more important than any one person, party, ethnicity, religion, gender or issue.”
He added: “And I do not believe that we as a people do not know this. I believe that we have allowed politics to influence our behaviour towards our own country to the extent that half of us at any one time did not feel a strong enough urge to participate meaningfully in its development.”
The minister admitted that while he is not unaware of the feeling of exclusion that can result from years or decades of political, social or economic marginalisation, at the end of the day,” we are all Guyanese and this country belongs to us and we all have a right as well as a responsibility that comes with being citizens of a country, to contribute to the development of Guyana.”
He said despite being said to be at the proverbial “bottom of the class” and with half the team on go-slow, his greatest hope is the fact that Guyana has been able to achieve both growth and stability.
There are however, some areas that require attention. These include making it easier to do business in Guyana and making Guyana more attractive to investors.
This is being addressed by two very comprehensive reports relating to the economic well-being of countries around the world: The Doing Business Report and the Global Competiveness Report.
Both comprise a number of broad indicators, each broken down into specific indicators of how easily or costly a business process is to complete, or how competitive Guyana is for each factor examined.
The Doing Business Reports cover areas such as registering property, getting electricity, access to credit, dealing with construction permits, paying taxes, protecting investors, trading across borders and enforcing contracts. The Competitiveness Report covers areas such as infrastructure, education, innovation, macro-economic development, financial institutions and financial market development, among others.
Together, these two reports, based on actual surveys conducted, highlight most of the concerns raised by businesses operating in Guyana. And so, in addressing the specific deficiencies identified in those reports, Guyana is in fact addressing most of the concerns of its businesses community.
TACKLING SHORTCOMINGS
The Ministry of Business, the minister said, is currently working on a programme to tackle individually the indicators on the Doing Business Report.
“We are working with a team from the World Bank which is providing technical assistance in several areas,” he disclosed.
Additionally, the ministry has just had a legal consultant engaged to identify and list the new legislation as well as the amendments to existing legislation required in order to enhance the existing legislative framework under which businesses are regulated.
Likewise, an Information and Communications Technology (ICT) consultant has been engaged to examine and identify the deficiencies in ICT capabilities in agencies involved in transactions with businesses.
He told of working on developing an electronic trade-facilitation system known as SWAPS, that will completely change the way Guyana processes import and export licences, permits and transactions, so that these can be done online in a short space of time through what is called a single window.
Unveiling a host of assured interventions in the pipeline, which are just but the tip of the iceberg, the minister said.
“We will also be addressing the problem areas identified in the Competitiveness Report through an appropriate public-private dialogue body. We believe that by working our way through all the areas where we score badly and making the required improvements, that we will be able to make Guyana a much, much better place to do business,” Minister Gaskin assured.
Essentially, small businesses will feature prominently. According to Minister Gaskin, small businesses must also have a fair chance of success, since the Government sees small businesses as capable of making significant contributions to the economy.
Gaskin also spoke of “A Green Economy” powered by affordable and renewable energy, driven by foreign earnings derived from exports of a range of value-added goods and services.
“The future and what it holds for our country need not be a mystery,” Minister Gaskin assured.