MINISTER of Foreign Trade and International Cooperation Mr. Clement Rohee has said that the private sector is currently the most dominant sector in Guyana as distinct from what happened in the past, when the state sector was dominant.

According to the Minster, under the previous administration, the State controlled about 80 per cent of the economy, and employed most of the workforce, while the private sector was totally marginalised and miniaturised.

Rohee said that now the state sector is no longer the dominant sector, although there are state entities, which maintain a `co-operative’ relationship with the private sector.

Speaking on Tuesday, on the first day of the two-day conference of the Guyana Trades Union Congress, held at the Ocean View Convention Centre, Liliendaal, Rohee said that co-operatives do exist today and that if one were to go through many of the documents that are published by the Government, the Ministry of Finance and the Bank of Guyana, one would be astonished to see the number of Co-operatives that still exist in this country.

“So we still have managerial situations where the state sector, the private sector and the co-operatives are existing with each other,” Rohee pointed out.

“The difference today is that the private sector is the dominant sector as distinct from what was happening in the past where the state sector was the dominant sector controlling 80 per cent of the economy - the bulk of the workers - and the private sector totally marginalised, miniaturised and the cooperatives playing the role of the appendage,” Rohee said.

The Minister also responded to one of the presenters, who had told the conference earlier in the day, that there is “a general crisis in Guyana today”.

Minister Rohee took the opportunity to urge persons to exercise care and caution when they “bandied about terms about crisis”.

“We need to define these things…how can we speak about a crisis in Guyana and paint the picture that (the economy of) Guyana is going to collapse tomorrow?” Rohee posited.

In this regard, he made reference to the tremendous improvement of the economy in recent years under the current People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/Civic) administration. He pointed out that the Government spent some $5 Billion on health care last year, compared to $1 billion allocated to the sector in 1991. While the former administration had expended only $1 billion on education in 1991, the current Government expended some $9.3 Billion on the sector last year.

“These are important statistics to know because when one speaks about rice (for example), some people see rice in a compartmentalised way. We haven’t looked at as a total picture or a holistic picture of what is meant by rice as it relates to jobs, in relation to social and economic justice, in relation to cultural facilities, and things like these,” Rohee added.

Rohee also countered some comments made in the opening session about Government laying off people as a panacea or an answer to economic problems. “We are not laying off people in this country,” Rohee said unequivocally.

He pointed out that even though there is “a crisis” in the bauxite industry right now, the Government still did not do what was done in the past by the previous administration - that of “throwing out” people from their jobs. He noted that the Government is subsidising the bauxite industry at “great cost” so that workers will continue to have their jobs.

Rohee was also severe in his criticisms of TUC Consultant Mr. Raymond Gaskin, who failed in his attempt to disrupt the Minister on several occasion during his presentation. Gaskin shouted at and heckled the Minister during his presentation and had to be urged by the organisers to exercise control.

According to Rohee, Gaskin is totally against foreign investment and probably has a phobia on this matter.

Gaskin, who Rohee described as “living in the past”, has accused the Government of selling out certain things in Guyana, and of giving away all the natural resources of this country to foreign investors.

But Rohee told the audience that “those of us who have lived here all these years and refused to leave this country for one reason or the other, who have been through thick and thin, who have been here through the good times and the bad times…must recognise that we have had some terrible experiences when it comes to the state sector in this country.”

Without venturing into great details on the matter, Rohee said, “we have had some terrible experiences in respect of the state sector and these days, Governments are not going into business”.

This, he said, is based on Government’s experiences and not on the basis of any diktat.

“This is not on the basis of somebody dictating to us how we must run this country,” Rohee said. &#x201CThis is on the basis of our own experience that most state enterprises in Guyana have proven to be total fiascos.”

He said this is due to a number of reasons including political interference in the management of these enterprises.

Gaskin, in his presentation at the opening of the conference, had also spoken of “a model” which is based on the Government, the private sector and Cooperatives.

But Rohee said the state sector has been working in close collaboration with the private sector and the cooperative sector, contrary to Gaskin’s point.

On the issue of Government’s experience in terms of the cooperatives, Rohee said he did not need to go into great details since “we who lived here know what has been Guyana’s experiences in respect to the cooperatives (with) most of these cooperatives ended up not being genuine, legitimate cooperatives”.

“Nobody is saying that we should not encourage cooperatives, but to the extent that it was encouraged under the people’s dispensation, I think we need to draw some serious lessons from that,” Rohee said.

The Minister also informed participants that comments made by certain speakers during the opening ceremony of the conference, were misinformed and therefore unacceptable.

According to him, some comments were intolerable criticisms that were politically levelled at the Government. He mentioned some of these charges as: “Government must know that they don’t have all the answers”; “Government must know that they do not have the power”; “Ordinary men are losing faith” and that “The era for rhetoric and platitudes is over”.

Rohee noted, too, that it was the PPP/Civic administration which had set up the Tri-Partite Committee, which was a glowing manifestation of how it saw the relationship moving between Government, labour and the private sector.

He stated, too, that the TUC/Office of the President engagements have been resuscitated. He said this was also an expression of the openness with which Government sees its relations with the labour leaders.

“If we were afraid of criticisms, and if we were hiding behind offices, then obviously we would not want to be engaged in regular discussions with other sectors of the society,” Rohee asserted.

He also pointed out that when one looks at the parliamentary agenda, he/she would recognise that quite a lot of parliamentary work has been accomplished to the extent that a number of pieces of legislation have been passed coinciding with the aspirations and the demands of the labour movement.

“In other words, there is a tremendous degree of coincidence between Government and labour in respect of our parliamentary agenda,” Rohee said.

We have had legislation passed on the Trade Union recognition bill, which is a signal move that was accomplished, he added.

“So I don’t think that there is a one-sided relationship as some might seem to convey in respect of Government and labour. I think there is a tremendous amount of credible evidence to show that unlike some other Caribbean countries, this Government has a very open-door approach in its relationships with the union,” he stated.

Rohee said it is also important for Caribbean participants of the conference to know this.

He accused a delegate from a sister CARICOM country, of speaking about economic realities of this country “without even studying the basic documents about what’s going on in Guyana”.

“He doesn’t even know what is the level of inflation in this country…he talks about double-digit inflation, when we have already done away with double digit inflation. Our inflation rate now is 5.8 per cent,” Rohee said.

“So I want to caution people when they come to this country that they must do their homework first. Do not come here and make statements and convey the wrong impression, because they go back home and talk about economic unrealities that exist in this country,” the Minister said.

Rohee also pointed out that there was no Government delegation represented at the TUC conference simply because they were not formally invited. His statement sought to clarify an earlier perception by the organisers of the conference that the Guyana Government was reluctant to attend.

However, Prime Minister Sam Hinds, Minister Rohee and Ministerial Advisor on Empowerment, Mr. Odinga Lumumba, were all present at the conference on Tuesday.