– returned Chairman Gouveia
RETURNED Private Sector Commission (PSC) Chairman, Mr. Gerald Gouveia has exhorted the body to “always walk the road of reason.”

The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Roraima Group of Companies issued the exhortation before he was unanimously re-elected at the 17th Annual General Meeting (AGM) at Duke Lodge, in Duke Street, Kingston, Georgetown, on Tuesday.

His audience included Minister of Agriculture, Mr. Robert Persaud and members of the Diplomatic Corps as well as re-elected PSC Vice-Chairman, Mr. Ramesh Dookhoo, who is also current President of Guyana Manufacturing and Services Association (GM&SA).

Mr. Yog Mahadeo, Chief Financial Officer of Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company (GT&T, was elected Secretary and Mr. Chandradat Chintamani, Treasurer.

The latter is presently President of Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI).

Mahadeo and Chintamani replaced Mr. Bal Persaud and Mr. Bert Sukhai, in their respective positions.

Gouveia pledged that the PSC will continue to work with all stakeholders, private and public, towards the development of this country.

“The PSC objective is to team up with the GCCI, the Tourism and Hospitality Association of Guyana (THAG), GM&SA and all of the private sector organisations to really bring one voice as we engage with Government,” he outlined.

Gouveia said: “The PSC and all private sector organisations we need to earn our place around the table.

“Not only with the Government but as we engage with the Opposition, as we engage with the security forces because we must always walk the road of reason,” he elaborated.

Gouveia said: “We are not going to take political sides. We are always going to take the side which we believe will be the side of Guyana and, to do that, we have to establish and earn the trust of all the parties involved.”

He said the Government, the Opposition parties and the security forces must know that “when they meet with us, our only concern is meeting with them in the national interest.”

Recalling the challenges over the years, Gouveia remarked that the PSC is a very unified and efficient organisation that “is not afraid to call for help and have been getting help from many sectors.”

He reminded that the PSC is one of the first organisations involved in the security sector reform consultations.

“As a result of that, we were very concerned when the security sector reform programme was not progressing with the same level of pace that we expected it to”.
CONCERN
“It is something of tremendous concern to the PSC because no private sector development can happen without a stable security infrastructure and atmosphere,” Gouveia said.

However, he said the end of the year meeting in 2008 was really refreshing as it was the first time that the country was at peace with “relative political peace and the crime was relatively under control.”

Gouveia also alluded to the role and importance of local government elections, stating: “We continue to meet constantly to look at these issues.”

Recognising that agriculture is a tremendously important industry and sector for Guyana’s future, he said, as a result, the PSC established a sub-committee, headed by Mr. Benny Sankar, one of the past PSC Chairmen.

“We started talking with the Minister of Agriculture about ways and means of the PSC encouraging and bringing to focus the possibilities in agriculture and the tremendous possibilities for agriculture as an economic tool for development,” Gouveia disclosed.

According to him: “As a result of that we took an example from Neal and Massy Group, which started a phenomenal experiment in the Mon Repos area and we took a private sector delegation to visit that farm.”

Gouveia said the PSC has discussed the prospect of major companies investing in agriculture as a new form of investment.

“We are getting very good responses from our members who are looking at agriculture as a very promising possibility for local investment,” he said, thanking Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) and recognizing its work in assisting the PSC not only financially, but offering advice and guidance.

Gouveia revealed that the issue of income tax reform is a major concern of the PSC.

“We were concerned that the document was done without consultation with the private sector but, since then, we are being assured that the consultants will come back and a new round of consultation will start again with the private sector to ensure that the document is one that draws some kind of consensus,” he said.

Meanwhile, in a release, the PSC said, despite the challenges it has made progress towards having its input on behalf of Guyana’s private sector, to make a difference.

It said the PSC organisational structure was revised and a new strategic plan was formulated and it is now in a significantly improved position to affect the business climate in Guyana as a result of the creation of a National Competitiveness Council (NCC) for Guyana, on which it represents the interest of the private sector directly to President Bharrat Jagdeo himself.

The new executive plans to continue this valuable work and wishes to encourage all of its members to participate, the release said.