PRESIDENT of Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI), Mr. Edward Boyer, reflecting on the September 11 terrorist attack on the United States (U.S.), said the Government of Guyana and the Private Sector need to develop synergies now, more than at any other time.

Guyana must form smart partnerships with entrepreneurs possessing financial knowledge, skills, international image and technology to create the environment for strategic alliances through mechanisms such as joint ventureship legislation and tax concessions, he posited.

In a release, Boyer said, “if Guyana does not wake up to the realities of global recession, we could die in our slumber.”

He said GCCI grieves the loss of Guyanese lives along with the thousands of others from the cosmopolitan city of New York and noted that the events of September 11 sent shock waves spiralling across the globe.

“The mightiest nation on the planet felt the whiplash of a brutal terrorists’ assault that altered the international political landscape as well as the lives of ordinary people around the world,” he observed.

Boyer said, in an undeveloped market-based economy like Guyana’s, uncertainties in international markets will have adverse spin-off effects.

“A world that was already on the threshold of a global economic slowdown is now faced with a reality of a major global recession as investment, production, distribution and consuming patterns are cloaked with uncertainty.”

The GCCI President remarked that Guyana’s fledgling tourism sector will undoubtedly suffer, as the business generally will decrease in the region, causing just one of the myriad of problems vulnerable economies like ours face.

Alluding to the temporary interruption of travel in the U.S. and its effects on other nations, Boyer said significant unemployment there will ultimately have a trickle down impact on many poor Guyanese families who are dependent on foreign remittances to make ends meet.

Moreover, as the U.S. Federal Government gallantly sets aside billions of dollars as part of the economic bailout for stricken industries, reconstruction and military retaliation, economic aid to the Third World, especially non-strategic nations like Guyana, is likely to dwindle substantially, he warned.

Boyer said, too, that problems in the Middle East will inevitably lead to an increase in fuel prices.