FINANCE Minister Dr. Ashni Singh, on Wednesday commended the Private Sector Commission (PSC) for what he called the “tremendous expansion” in private investment that has seen the creation of jobs, increase in aggregate output and uninterrupted economic growth. 

He was speaking at the Guyana Marketing and Services Association (GMSA) business luncheon, where the Trinidadian Minister of Planning and Sustainable Development, Dr. Bhoendradatt Tewarie, invited interested members of the business sector to the VIII Americas Competitiveness Forum (ACF) to be held in Trinidad and Tobago in October 2014.
Minister Singh said, while the Government pledges to do as much as possible to ensure that the macroeconomic fundamentals remain strong, collaboration with the leadership of the Private Sector and that of organised labour is absolutely critical.
According to him: “We have established mechanisms in Guyana, like the National Competitiveness Council, that brings together labour, private sector leadership, and Government.”
Singh said that Council, chaired by President Donald Ramotar, stands as the ideal forum through which issues of shared interest on the competitive environment for doing business in Guyana are addressed.
The Minister continued: “I remain convinced that this Competiveness Council has served an extremely useful purpose.”
He added that the contribution of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) must be acknowledged in implementing and supporting an extremely ambitious national competitiveness programme out of which the Council was established.
Minister Singh said the Guyana Government will remain engaged with the private sector and labour, focused as a leadership on ensuring the preservation of an environment that is conducive to private investors.

(By Derwayne Wills)