Plans moving apace for private sector development bank - Gafoor By Miranda La Rose Stabroek News April 6, 2000 A private sector development bank is "a must" for the local manufacturing sector if businesses are to achieve certain objectives, and plans are proceeding to set up such a facility, President of the Guyana Manufacturers Association (GMA), Sattaur Gafoor, said. In brief welcoming remarks at the GMA general members luncheon held at the Park Hotel yesterday, Gafoor said that a development bank was crucial to "our growth" and the need was there to fill the gap created by the "demise" of the Guyana Agricultural and Industrial Development Bank. Delivering the main address, Managing Director of Development Finance Ltd (DFL) of Trinidad and Tobago, Gerald Pemberton, said his company would like to work with the private sector in Guyana to produce the next generation of leaders. This, he said, will take time, hence the need to start now. "Banking is not an overnight business and to envisage a viable development bank, we have to look into the future," he said. Since President Bharrat Jagdeo renewed his challenge to the GMA in October last year to look into the setting up of such an institution, Gafoor said, several steps had been taken with the involvement of the DFL. This includes the development of a concept paper prepared by a Management Consultant from Chemonic International Inc, Osborne Nurse, under a contract with USAID for the GMA and a meeting between executives of the GMA and the Private Sector Commission with Pemberton and executives of the DFL in Miami last December. The DFL officials, Gafoor said, were enthusiastic about the possibilities for Guyana and held a follow-up meeting in Georgetown in January. The DFL is to host a symposium shortly to involve members of the private sector and interested parties in the consultative process. According to the concept paper, the objective of the development bank will be primarily to provide long-term financing for new and expanding businesses; provide other financial services needed by its clients including short-term trade finance; facilitate the further development and widening of the financial markets in Guyana; and explore and develop partnerships and cooperative relationships with other domestic and foreign financial service providers. It will also identify and secure sources of long-term financing including domestic and external sources and develop appropriate tools and systems to facilitate the growth and availability of domestic financial resources. Sattaur noted that the DFL is already assisting in Guyana's development by providing access to development funding to some Guyanese companies, including Mazaruni Granite Products Ltd. Pemberton, examining 'The new dimensions of business and the next generation of leaders' said that globalisation which began many years ago, had grown phenomenally because people were more willing to relate to each other across boundaries and technology makes travel readily available and instant communication possible. Noting that the evolution of business had created economic freedoms that liberate both investors and consumers, the DFL executive said "some people are concerned about this vast change and there has been a frantic rush for concentrations of power and control as we have seen in the last decade." Arguing that there was a new form of capitalism which promoted economic freedoms, Pemberton said that it appealed to societies that value diversity and participation and encouraged competitiveness as a way of life. "It is a capitalism driven by built-in freedoms and by open access to opportunities. Never before have developing countries been exposed to such great opportunities." And developing countries like Guyana, he said, could join in without going to the starting line once they possess discipline, enterprise and confidence.