Weekly Investments Insights with Gary Eleazar : Never mind the elections jitters it’s business as usual

AN election is in the air and with an election there are always jitters in the business environment. A local business chief confirmed this recently when preparing for a Surinamese trade delegation and spoke of the lull that occurs. He spoke too about investors wanting to be able to make projections for the foreseeable future, which leads to me to one of the queries I received this past week. What obtains in relation to the Guyana Office for Investment (GO-Invest) during this season?

The answer is simple – never mind the elections jitters it is going to be business as usual. APOLITICAL
GO-Invest, was established under the Public Corporations Act in 1994 as a semi-autonomous body and comes under the direct purview of the Office of the President.
Its Chief Executive Officer is answerable directly to the Board of Directors which is made up of representatives of both the private and public sectors.
Apolitical—matters not which President is in Office, GO-Invest is devoid of politics in its execution of its core mandate.
When it comes to GO-Invest, political persuasion is of no interest, Keith Burrowes, the entity’s CEO assures that when it comes to this entity its only focus is on efficiently executing its mandate of the Investment Facilitation and Promotion.
One strategy used by GO-Invest is to assist exporters in promoting their products through participation in national and international exhibitions and Trade Missions.
Go-Invest has in the past hosted Trade and Investment Expositions providing opportunities for local entrepreneurs in a number of overseas markets such as Antigua & Barbuda, Barbados, Canada,; Suriname, Trinidad & Tobago, St. Lucia and the USA particularly New York, Atlanta, Miami to name a few.
This is done in addition to the Guyana Exposition (GUYEXPO) and the numerous Trade Shows organized by Trade Promotion Organizations in various countries including France, the United Kingdom and Canada where GO-Invest had been facilitating a Guyanese presence.
At these events Go-Invest provides a number of services to companies attending these Trade Expositions not limited to just the Identification of prospective contacts, buyers, importers and agents.
As I continue to research this arm of the Office of the President, I learnt that GO-Invest, at these international events, also focuses heavily on publicity and advertising in the target markets and is always armed with the relevant trade information required by potential investors or business partners many of whom express an interest in the duties and tariffs among other factors relative to doing business in Guyana
One of the key objectives of these Trade Expositions is to introduce the participants to companies that may be interested in forming a partnership or strategic alliance but I was told that while the developed world is an ideal market to target, GO-Invest has not lost track of its neighbours and the potential that exists for mutually beneficial business with Guyana.
GO-Invest, has also placed a heavy emphasis on exploiting the export and investment opportunities in the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME) through direct business to business interactions.

TAMARINDS’ POTENTIAL
This past week the Small Business Bureau for the first time signed a MoU and conducted a grant awards and partnership ceremony with a number of local small scale entrepreneurs.
In his address to those business men and women, President Donald Ramotar referred to the contributions small businesses make to the economy and how they benefit a country. “We appreciate how important you are to the economy of Guyana and to the development of our country both now and in the future.”
If I could add a word of advice to those very small business owners, before the euphoria subsides, visit the GO-Invest Office at Camp and Church Street and find out how tapping into CSME can help to expand their operations.
Whenever I think about CSME and how underutilised this framework is, I often think back to a time I was in the supermarket at some one of those Caribbean Islands I have visited over the years.
As I stood there what was on display shocked me and for a moment wished I had the capital to invest in the Agriculture sector and tap into this. I would have probably been rich by now. You see what was on sale, at a hefty price mind you, was tamarinds.
I had never before seen tamarinds packaged so nicely, all that value added stuff I had been hearing about all these years suddenly made so much more sense.
My recollection of tamarinds was as a boy going to a neighbour’s yard and picking up tamarinds that fell to the ground. That would make a wicked paste when mixed with some sugar. The ones that were not ripened as yet, those were good with some good old salt and pepper. But these people had packaged this tamarind so nicely, placed it very conspicuously among the other fruits on display and Caribbean people certainly like their assorted home grown fruits. Only thing was this tamarind came from Indonesian but those who bought it and didn’t read the fine print on the label would be none the wiser.
I thought to myself of the mansion I would build one day when I reached home and started chasing my fortune exported beautifully packaged fruits.
Procrastination is guess is my fault for not having becoming Guyana’s premier exporter of nicely packaged assorted fruits but at that time I also paid little attention to what CSME was or potential on small business in Guyana.

TAPPING INTO CSME
Those small businesses in Guyana can in fact expand their operations simply by accessing the relevant information and business contacts.
CSME is intended to benefit the people of the Region by providing more and better opportunities to produce and sell our goods and services and to attract investment. It essentially creates one large market among the participating member states.
Its purpose is also to allow the free movement of goods, services, capital and CARICOM nationals and to regulate the treatment of economic enterprises within the Single Market.
I mentioned that GO-Invest is heavily into publicity and advertising in the target markets but GO-Invest officers will also help to set up initial appointments in overseas markets and even also help with the coordination of travel and accommodation arrangements.
Visit GO-Invest and ask too for a copy of the Exporter Handbook, it was prepared in association with USAID and International Trade Commission.
It’s basically a basic reference tool and consultative resource for small businesses currently exporting and who seek to expand their sales in foreign markets and also small businesses that are doing well domestically and looking to enter the export markets.
So for now if it is you are looking to expand your business, don’t let election jitters become too much of a bother, visit GO-Invest find out how they might be able to facilitate some business for you.
Comments and/or queries can be sent to garyeleazar@yahoo.com

 

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