THE Guyana Manufacturing and Services Association (GMSA) has expressed confidence in the business sector, and has noted the Government’s efforts to address its concerns.In a statement yesterday, the GMSA noted that Finance Minister Winston Jordan has been generous to the GMSA with his time and guidance. The statement read that Minister Jordan has given consideration to the umbrella body’s recommendations for improvements in the services provided by several agencies, including the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA).

The statement said Minister Jordan agrees that manufacturing remains at the heart of Guyana’s economic development, once the sector evolves from exportation of primary products only into industries that process local raw materials into user-ready, table-ready products.

According to the GMSA, given the current governance dispensation, “it is our hope that former and potential manufacturers of household sundries, toys, plantain and cassava chips and construction materials would start up new manufacturing enterprises utilizing readily available raw materials, or expand their current operations with more alacrity”.

The GMSA noted that, through a series of focal changes, the manufacturing sector as it is today evolved from import substitution to export orientation to foreign investment. It said the phase of Import Substitution was characterized by in-country manufacture of most consumables for home and business.

The export orientation phase saw the 1984 establishment of the Guyana Manufacturing & Industrial Development Agency (GUYMIDA) to assist and advise entrepreneurs with formulating and implementing business projects. The challenges, which were many, were exacerbated by shortages of a number of factors of production, including energy and foreign currency.

The statement listed the 1990s as another difficult decade. It said entrepreneurial focus shifted to investor partnerships and foreign direct investments.

“This current decade has been labelled the period of the ‘pincer movement’, a two-pronged approach to business premised on export promotion and in-country value-added production”, the body noted.

It recounted that as year 2000 approached, the sector was at a stage where the export of primary products – rice, sugar, bauxite, plantains and other vegetables, fruits and coconuts — became more lucrative. The GMSA said the move cost growers, farmers, loggers, miners much less to export raw, primary products than it did to establish value-added industries utilizing farm products, wood, rice, sugar and minerals. The body said value-added moves would have brought less financial returns.

“These unfortunate circumstances were also shaped by the global competitive market which is dominated by products (including appliances) made from plastics, polyurethane, steel, and other cheaper synthetic materials”, the GMSA said.

At the same time, other players in the sector, such as furniture makers, found it necessary to backward integrate in order to remain relevant and profitable.

“Furniture makers found it more proficient to acquire forest concessions. From there they got the kind and quality of wood they needed to retain their standards”, the body said. In addition, the body said, the “bullish presence” of the Chinese in the external markets resulted in manufacturers investing less in their secondary and tertiary operations, choosing instead to trade their primary products.

The GMSA said it is not “unsophisticated”, noting that there are only a few operators whose markets are mostly in-country and who have not yet graduated to advanced computerized technologies for processing, labelling and packaging, marketing and tracking the standards and progress of their competitors.

The GMSA mentioned the 1970s/80s as the years when manufacturing was at its pinnacle here. It listed the D’Aguiars, the Kissoons, the Gafoors, the (Toolsie) Persaud family, Claude Geddes, Continental Agencies, the Yassin family and the John Fernandes families were among the first ‘occupants’ of then British Guiana’s first Industrial Estate.

“They manufactured wooden furniture and foam, construction materials, metal fencing, soaps and household sundries, and provided needed services”, the body said.
Today it noted technology’s benefits to the economy, noting that “the introduction of Fourth Generation (4G) technology will play no small role in keeping our overseas markets, and the Government’s introduction of “Economic Diplomacy” into Guyana’s Foreign Service offers much needed on-the-ground trade facilitation”.

The GMSA also expressed its sympathies to businessman Sattaur Gafoor, whose Houston, East
Bank Demerara business complex was partially gutted by fire. “We pledge to do everything possible to boost his return to profitability and to doing what he loves best, being of help to others”, the body noted.