The Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI) yesterday launched its strategic plan calculated to strengthen the capacity of the body to service its members.
Jean Bacchus, Executive Director of the GCCI made the point in her opening remarks at the Cara Lodge that research and experience has shown that such organizations equipped with a futuristic plan presaging particular patterns are better able to implement a developmental agenda.
Howard Bird, a Human Resources specialist associated with the chamber said that some of the major impediments encumbering the membership of the chamber, as researched in the preparation of the strategic plan are the high rate of corporate taxation, the chronic migration of skills, climate change, crime and security, drugs and money laundering and the endemic lack of resources.
Bird continued that key issues contemplated by the strategic plan include the increase of membership registration, resource mobilization, capacity building, research and communication and the equipping of the chamber with a “strong” voice in advocacy at the policy level e.g. with regard to crime and security, in the thrust of the promotion of trade and investment.
President of the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce, Chandradat Chintamani posited that a key objective of the strategic plan is the improvement of the quality of service offered by the chamber. He said if a juxtaposition is done between the services of the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and other such chambers in Suriname and Trinidad, the local chamber would be revealed as profoundly lacking. The introduction of new services offered by the chamber as an incentive tied to an increase of membership was another key objective identified by Chintamani as a component of the strategic plan.
The President of the Chamber of Commerce added that the development and implementation of a code of conduct is an integral component of the strategic arrangement.
Chintamani took the opportunity to raise the issue of what has referred to a restrictive and high corporate tax. Chintamani juxtaposed Guyana’s regime against lower percentages prevalent within the region. He sought to make the point that a reduction of this percentage would result in a widening of the tax net as tax evasion is the invariable product of a high tax rate.
In a recent parliamentary deliberation on the issue of Guyana‘s corporate tax regime, PNCR-1G MP Winston Murray had also articulated the necessity of having Guyana’s corporate tax percentage reduced. Murray had spoken of the reduction of this percentage in the context of the establishment and maintenance of investor friendly climate.
Finance Minister Ashni Singh who also addressed the chamber’s membership said that the strategic plan was welcome and declared that the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce was an important stakeholder in the developmental thrust.
He said that the advocacy agenda of the Chamber must also be internal in terms of the promotion of compliance among its membership with the relevant laws, e.g. labour and environment laws adding that this internal advocacy must also promote good corporate governance.
Singh said that this internal advocacy must also translate to the encouragement of innovation and reform in the pursuit of competitiveness and expansion.
Singh acknowledged the chamber’s advocacy policy with regard to crime and security but said that there should also be an acknowledgement of the several measures adopted at the parliamentary level to combat criminal activity in Guyana.
He said that the recommendation for lowering of the corporate tax rate must not be viewed in isolation of fiscal and monetary policy linked to macro economic stability.
Several economic analysts had made the point that vibrant, robust and burgeoning economic activity e.g. in the case of the ‘Asian Tigers’ was stimulated by a reduction of the corporate tax rate among other measures.
Such analysts had pointed that the revenue foregone by this reduction was positively and progressively compensated for by the wealth generating economic activity.
