Roulette wheels may spin in Georgetown
Nadir considers casino licences
Stabroek News
January 25, 2003
Roulette wheels could be spinning and dice tumbling in Guyana if a proposal to introduce casino licences becomes a reality.
Minister of Tourism, Industry and Commerce Manzoor Nadir says he is taking a look at various models and is grappling with issues such as whether the casinos would be only for tourists and where they might be located. But he acknowledged it would likely generate a debate on par with that over abortion rights.
Last year, slot machines which were brought in by Golden Palm Inc were seized by the police after warnings from the ministry that their use was illegal. The matter is now before the courts.
At a press briefing to highlight the ministry’s work plan for 2003, Nadir said the ministry plans to introduce several pieces of legislation related to competition, e-commerce, small business, consumer rights, free zones, as well as, one to deal with the establishment of an industrial development authority.
In relation to the draft legislation for competition, Nadir said that the Commerce Department has been collaborating with the CARICOM Secretariat which has model legislation for the creation of a regional competition commission in keeping with the setting up of the Caribbean Single Market and Economy (CSME). He said it was a common piece of legislation that would most likely be replicated in other CARICOM countries as they prepared for the CSME.
He said the ministry was in the process of preparing for consultations with stakeholders.
The Commerce Department was also working on the introduction of e-commerce legislation so that businesses could start trading on the internet. While some amount of business activity and consumers have begun to trade this way, he said that there was no specific legislation to govern such transactions.
The CARICOM Secretariat has already received “the e-readiness report” of Caribbean countries including Guyana and based on that report, Nadir said the ministry was going to introduce the measures to ensure Guyana becomes “e-ready” in the shortest possible time.
He said the e-commerce legislation was in keeping with the model legislation which the United Nations has developed. That legislation was recently adopted by Bermuda.
In the Consumers Division, Nadir said that the draft consumers legislation “that has been in purgatory for the last eight years will be tabled hopefully by the end of the first quarter.” This piece of legislation would be in keeping with the CARICOM model. However, before the bill goes to Parliament the ministry has to conduct another round of consultations.
In relation to the free zone legislation, Nadir said that the ministry has been studying the Trinidad and Tobago model. This legislation he said would assist in the creation and regulation of free zones and industrial areas. He said the ministry had been in contact with “a considerable amount of business interests that want to set up manufacturing industries principally for export.”
As for the proposed Industrial Development Authority, Nadir said the government would want to have legislation in place to facilitate a public/private sector partnership in the fostering of industries in Guyana. This would put the responsibility of developing industries outside of the bureaucracy of government. He said the projection is that such an authority would not only get a subvention from government but it would operate as a business, charging fees for services rendered, co-ordinating activities and managing industrial estates.
He said a chaotic situation now exists as it relates to industrial estates and the best thing to do would be to back the creation of an authority through legislation to bring some order.
Noting that small business legislation had been promised for a number of years, Nadir said that over the past 18 months, the ministry has been in receipt of draft legislation that was authorised under the Guyana Economic Opportunities (GEO) project. This has been discussed with the Small Business Association. The draft has taken into consideration the experiences in other Caribbean territories, more particularly those of Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago. Nadir said he is due to receive the revised draft in another week or two and expects that the new draft would be ready for the first quarter of this year. (Miranda La Rose)
