No turning back
-- Tourism, Industry and Commerce Minister
By Mark Ramotar
Guyana Chronicle
May 1, 2007
GUYANA has a strong and vibrant private sector and business community that is fast emerging to take its rightful place as the engine of growth and hub of the Guyanese economy, according to Minister of Tourism, Industry and Commerce, Mr. Manniram Prashad.
He believes “Guyanese business people are among the most decent, honest and hardworking people in the Caribbean”, something he said can be verified if one just checks the records.
The minister also lauded the quality of products produced and manufactured locally and the ingenuity of Guyanese businessmen operating in a country that is open to business and investment.
“Guyana is on the move and there is no turning back,” he said during an address to the 117th Annual General Meeting of the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI) yesterday.
Highlighting an example of Guyanese ingenuity, the minister recalled being invited to accompany former President Janet Jagan on a state visit to Brazil in the late 1990s when he received (in his then capacity as President of the GCCI) a complaint from businessmen in Boa Vista about how Guyanese were smuggling garlic across the border and selling it cheap on the Brazilian market.
“But guess what? Garlic is produced in Brazil. Brazil is an exporter of garlic and we import garlic from China, pay duties and still get it across to Brazil and sell it cheaper than the Brazilian - this is Guyanese ingenuity.”
The minister also said he is “very happy” to work with the chamber of commerce and all the other private sector organisations to carry out his mandate in the sectors of tourism, industry and commerce.
Prashad, a President of the GCCI for six consecutive years from 1995 to 2001, has been instrumental in establishing several of the chambers of commerce across Guyana.
He lauded outgoing President of the GCCI Captain Gerry Gouveia for “leading from the front” over the past two years and “doing an excellent job during his stewardship of the chamber”.
“Gerry is the livewire and every organisation that he heads (and) during that period, you will see remarkable growth, especially if it’s the tourism industry,” Prashad told the gathering at the GCCI office on Waterloo Street, Georgetown where the AGM was held.
Gouveia, in his address at the AGM, said the past two years as President of the GCCI have been a “most challenging time” for him.
“I demit office with a particular sense of satisfaction which derives from my conviction that with the support from my colleagues, I have carried the baton of leadership on an important part of the journey that all of us have undertaken.”
“At the beginning of my term, I set myself some specific tasks, such as broadening the membership of the chamber, enhancing the chamber’s relevance to the local private sector and to the country as a whole and strengthening those communication lines between the chamber and the local, regional and international organisations and more specifically, those citizens of our country,” Gouveia said.
The outgoing President said while he believes that measured successes have been accomplished in each of these areas, he has come to learn that personal goals are sometimes impacted by circumstances that cannot be predetermined.
In this context, Gouveia acknowledged that some of the goals he set out to achieve were not fully realised.
He, however, noted that central to the work at the chamber is the relationship of the body with the government.
“It is government that makes the rules that provided us with the enabling environment within which we operate (and) that relationship is both desirable and necessary.”
“While it will be comforting for me to suggest that our relationship with government has always been an amicable one, that as you are aware has simply not been the case,” he contended.
According to him, there have been disagreements, the most recent being the one occurring over the issue associated with the new Value Added Tax (VAT) and the Excise Tax.
“For me however, the real value of our relationship with the government lies in the fact that there is mutual acceptance of the role that the private sector has to play in the development of this country,” Gouveia posited.
In this regard, he said differences of opinion have not allowed either side to lose sight of their perspective or of their respective roles and possibilities.
“It is of course no secret that my own business pursuits have not distracted me from my preoccupations in the development of Guyana as a whole. My own concerns for my country derive truly from a sense of patriotism,” Gouveia declared at the AGM.
He also encouraged the chamber and its members to play a more active role in public life, but cautioned that this does not mean “behaving as though we are politicians”.
It is rather to ensure that the points of view of the business community on important issues remain part of the national and political agenda, he said.
Gouveia also stressed that civil stability is critical to the fortunes of the private sector.
“I would like to think that our modest contributions helped to ensure the smooth running of the last national and regional elections which was described by both local and international observers as the most peaceful in our post-independence history and this was no small achievement for the private sector.”
Gouveia also urged businessmen to take time to reflect on the negatives being said about them and see whether these have any merit and find ways to remove this stigma.
“I sometimes get the impression though that the business community in Guyana is perceived as selfish, inward looking, sometimes unconcerned over the welfare of our country and its people as a whole.”
“I do believe that we should allow ourselves the time to reflect on this and to ensure that this stigma is removed from the business community,” he urged.
“The truth is we cannot afford to allow ourselves to be forced into a condition of splendid isolation. This country and this chamber and its members cannot exist in splendid isolation from the rest of the world or more specifically, from the rest of society,” the outgoing Chamber President asserted.
While pledging support to whoever is named/appointed his successor, Gouveia urged the new President of the need to ensure that the GCCI website is current and dynamic, continue efforts at expanding the membership base and to establish a membership club on the ground floor of the chamber building on Waterloo Street.
He also highlighted the need to engage the Association of Regional Chamber of Commerce and more particularly, the individual chamber members more regularly.
Regarded as the oldest and most prestigious Chamber of Commerce in Guyana, the GCCI was established in 1889 to promote the interests of trade and industry at the local, regional and international level.
Guided by both the vision of its leaders and the dynamic realities of the business environment, the chamber has evolved into a respectable, focused and successful body which has considerable influence in national affairs which affect business in the capital city of Georgetown and Guyana as a whole.
The chamber has established numerous affiliations with international and regional chambers of commerce, most notably the London Chamber of Commerce.