-E-commerce Bill, capacity-building on govt’s agenda

RECOGNISING the many hurdles that entrepreneurs must overcome when starting up and managing a small business in Guyana, such as having to visit multiple agencies for registration and compliance, and an archaic business environment, the Ministry of Tourism, Industry and Commerce is implementing various mechanisms to create a more conducive business environment.

Director of Business and Entrepreneur Development attached to the ministry, John Edghill, during an interview with the Sunday Chronicle, pronounced on some of these measures, namely, a ‘single-window’ permit system where persons can access most of the services needed to facilitate their business in one place.

According to Edghill, the ministry recognises the “run around” persons might face while conducting business, especially having to visit several agencies during the registration process to secure certificates and compliances, which may be counterproductive to the overall scheme of an efficient business environment.

In most cases, people are not afforded the time to visit the number of agencies on multiple occasions at various timings, and the drawn-out process may even deter innovative entrepreneurs with potential from making significant contributions.

“That causes stress and decreases the intention to even want to set up a business, because many persons don’t want to have to stand up in long lines, go to different agencies and then be going in a back and forth and we recognise that inconvenience.

“So, we have been working with several of our sister agencies to set up single-window systems,” Edghill told the Sunday Chronicle.

“There is going to be a single window for trade, and that project is expected to be finished by 2023 where work will be done through the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA), this ministry and several other agencies that are responsible for trade and export,” Edghill said.

“Those single-window systems are essentially just to have one centralised portal where you can file all of your applications and it goes through the relevant chains without you having to use your own time and cost. The system will be improved, inconvenience will be in most cases removed,” he added.

Currently, any entrepreneur desirous of starting a business needs to visit multiple agencies, namely GRA, the National Insurance Scheme (NIS) and the Deeds Registry, for registration purposes; the main reason the ministry is contemplating linking the process in one “window”.

“Because this process is so fragmented, many persons just register their business name and they never register with GRA and [we] find that this is a grave situation for these businesses because when you don’t register with GRA, you’re not paying your taxes, you’re not compliant and if you want government procurement you have to be compliant,” Edghill explained.

According to him, in some cases, persons are not even aware of the various processes and procedures with which they must comply for their businesses to be legitimate and be afforded access to procurement of projects.

“Even private-equity persons when they look at your business, they might see a risk in investing because you have no formal records to say you have been paying your taxes and that’s something a lot of private-equity and venture capitalists look at when they want to invest in your company,” he explained.

“Not only does the single window benefit the government in terms of getting the financial contributions, but in the long run it really benefits the businessperson who is able to have a record, who is able to benefit from government procurement, who is able to market their business and be able to scale up their business,” he added.

Edghill reiterated that President Irfaan Ali in January 2021 announced that the central government will be undertaking modernisation of the institutional and legislative infrastructure to establish a single-window approval system for building permits and construction permits, a project which has been already commenced by the Central Housing & Planning Authority and the Ministry of Tourism, Industry and Commerce.

Not only is the ministry looking at ways to encourage entrepreneurship and to make conducting business in Guyana easier, it is also focused on strengthening the capacity of businesses to ensure that competitive products and services are produced locally and to facilitate a modern, convenient business environment.

Edghill told this publication that the Organization of American States (OAS) and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) have already engaged the ministry subsequent to recognising the many issues highlighted by the COVID-19 pandemic in relation to conducting business, especially in developing countries such as Guyana.

“We know with the stay-at-home order that was imposed, a lot of businesses suffered because they were conducting business by the traditional ways; one of the times the ministry is going to be pushing is more electronic use of commerce,” Edghill said.

“We have a WhatsApp for business training that we will be rolling out, as well as we have an E-commerce Bill that is yet to be tabled, but that E-commerce Bill is what will really transform the use of E-commerce in Guyana and having all the online market places being regularised,” he added.

Edghill highlighted that currently, entrepreneurs are prevented from accepting payments online as the country lacks the requisite legislation, unless they have a United States (US) account or are using methods provided by third parties. Further, online markets are not regularised and conduct business in a lackadaisical manner.

“So, the E-commerce Bill will actually help to regularise this and this will actually reduce the cost of doing business for many young persons, because no longer will they have to set up a brick-and-mortar business, try to rent a 10×30 space for $30,000 or get a shelf somewhere and all of that is good.”

The Ministry of Tourism, Industry and Commerce is also targeting capacity-building as it relates to the functionality of businesses through training in marketing and other areas. The ministry usually works alongside the Guyana Marketing Corporation (GMC) and the Guyana Office for Investment (GoInvest) to help train persons to improve packaging and labelling.

“That has always been a problem we have identified, especially for small businesses when they start up; they might have their own unique labelling, but it might not be [of] international standard,” he said.

“Partnering with these entities helps them to improve their standard, so that they can become export-ready; we have seen that happen with many of our small businesses already who have moved from a just regular labelling to international standards,” he added.

It was previously reported by the Sunday Chronicle that as a result of the unemployment rate among the youth population, the Ministry of Tourism, Industry and Commerce has embarked upon a path to promote entrepreneurship in this section of society by providing easy access to financing for the development of small businesses.