Businessmen in Linden were on Tuesday challenged to develop innovative ways to ensure success in their ventures and uplift their community.

The challenge was thrown out by Minister of Tourism, Industry and Commerce, Manzoor Nadir, while addressing the fourth annual business luncheon of the Linden Chamber of Industry, Commerce and Development (LCICD) at the Watooka Club.

Investment, Nadir told the businessmen, would only come if they were prepared to take the necessary steps to build their businesses. He said they needed to take stock of what their available resources were and work towards developing these, while harnessing the assistance of all stakeholders.

The minister asserted that there had been a lot of misconceptions and contradictions emanating from the business sector, which needed to be cleared up once and for all. Pointing to the expulsion of the Royal Castle fast food franchise from the mining town last year, Nadir said it was funny that businesses wanted to engage international bodies to invest in the area, but were chasing locals. He urged them not to be afraid of competition but rather to welcome it as an incentive to ensuring that they improved their products.

The minister also told the businessmen that $400 million had been made available in the last budget to aid in the building of factory infrastructure and that they should organise themselves to benefit from this initiative. He challenged the chamber to find a suitable site on which an industrial estate could be erected.

Nadir further stated that businessmen needed to aggressively seek suitable ventures to allow for a satisfactory return on their investments. He said that they also needed to improve their standards, capabilities and capacity to survive in a changing global environment, such as ensuring greater value-added content in their manufacturing. He urged them to move away from the "bottom house syndrome" and take advantage of the technology being advanced.

This apart, he alluded to other initiatives like a five-year tax holiday for pioneering industries, the soon-to-be-enacted investment code and the nascent Linden Economic Advancement Programme (LEAP), which would bring US$10M (around $2B) to the community.

The LEAP initiative, according to the minister, would soon begin to have an impact on the Linden community with the finalisation of the bid process which was at the evaluation stage. It will target small businesses and build entrepreneurship among other areas.

The minister's challenges came in the wake of pleas by members of the LCICD including its President Basil Jaipaul, who, in his report, urged the government to do more to assist businesses in the area.

Government, he said, should assist in positioning Linden as the competitive gateway to the heart of the South American continent which was fast becoming a reality.

Earlier, Regional Chairman, Mortimer Mingo, spoke of the status of the community as a hub. He said it was in the interest of all parties, including the business sector the regional administration and the local authority, to work towards improving the lot of the residents in the community. According to Mingo, the local business sector needed to recognise that without the residents they would not make progress.

He also raised the issue of HIV and AIDS, which, he said, threatened to undermine the community and inevitably the business sector and the regional administration. He called on the business sector to do more to aid in this battle.

Positing that the region was poised for development, he reiterated that the RDC was open to discussion with any group willing to work towards this.

Brazilian Ambassador to Guyana, Ney do Prado Dieguez spoke of trade and physical integration between his nation and what he described as the "first door of access to Brazil".

He referred to the likelihood of valuable trading relations developing following the recent signing of a partial scope agreement between Guyana and Brazil, allowing certain local products to be exported to the neighbouring state free of duty. One such item was bauxite, the bedrock of the Linden community.

He spoke of the advantages for Guyana's products which would be exposed to a huge market of 170 million people, along with the likelihood soon of closer cross-border contacts with the completion of the Takutu bridge. Dieguez also spoke of the need to upgrade the road between Linden and Lethem. A lot of people outside, he stated, had the impression, because of talk of the construction of a road to Brazil, that none existed. This myth needed to be dispelled, he said, as the local embassy was already issuing between two and four visas per day to travellers using the overland route.

He further extended an open invitation to businesses to explore trade and other business opportunities and to make enquiries at the embassy which had an open-door policy.

British High Commissioner, Edward Glover, expressed optimism in the future of Linden, noting the functioning of two chimneys in the bauxite industry instead of the one that he had observed on his previous visits.

He urged Lindeners to be more aggressive in selling their community even as the global marketplace became more crowded.

Referring to the LEAP programme, he warned that it was no quick fix or magic wand, but required an energetic and committed approach.