Govt, private sector summit for Monday - investment climate to be key topic By Gitanjali Singh Stabroek News October 9, 1999 The government's business summit with the private sector is set for Monday at Le Meridien Pegasus Hotel, where the investment climate of Guyana is expected to come under keen scrutiny. President Bharrat Jagdeo and Chairman of the Private Sector Commission George Jardim will set the tone for the summit with opening statements from 8:30 am. Two hundred persons have been invited. Sectoral participants will then break into workshops covering the various sectors with three representatives from each sector discussing with government, official policy reforms and other recommendations from 11:00 am. At 4:00 pm the findings will be summarised and presented. The final touches were still being put to the issues for discussion yesterday but President Jagdeo said he hoped the summit would yield a renewed institutional structure and incentive regime which would facilitate investments for Guyana and more jobs for Guyanese. Speaking to reporters at a media briefing yesterday, he said the summit will yield some specific results but more will be seen after a longer engagement between the government and private sector via joint working committees. He indicated that the programme with the International Monetary Fund and World Bank will not be restrictive to growth-oriented policies. A key private sector businessman told Stabroek News yesterday that the focus of the summit should be the development of an incentive strategy for Guyana. The businessman said the ground work was already covered in the 1997 USAID study on a draft investment strategy by Siegfried Marks, David Lewis & Arnold McIntyre which highlighted the incentive shortfall in the various sectors in Guyana and made recommendations for remedying this. This study was recently released to the private sector and was reported on subsequently by this newspaper. The source said that it was this strategy which would lead to the promulgation of laws on investment in Guyana and an investment code which was transparent and removed discretionary power from government ministers. Everything else which ails society will fall into place after such a strategy is adopted, the source argued, expressing the hope that the summit is not used to further the interests of certain businesses, but rather to set the stage for a vibrant private sector in Guyana. The government had some months ago released an investment guide but this was criticised as still being inadequate. The business summit was one of the promises of Mr Jagdeo in his inaugural speech to the nation and is being touted as the platform for change in the investment climate. A © page from: Guyana: Land of Six Peoples