Chintamani told Stabroek Business that while he did not wish to provide an assessment “that exaggerates the concerns of the commercial sector” and creates “a condition of undue worry” the implications of what was happening in the rest of the economy meant that job displacement in the commercial sector “may well be a matter of weeks away.”
According to Chintamani while the mood in the commercial sector may not be one of doom and gloom, it is certainly “not exciting.” He added that the commercial sector “understands the realities of the economic crisis that the country faces.”
Chintamani said that while reducing employment costs was one of the easiest ways of lowering overall operational expenditure, the Chamber was seeking to work with the commercial sector to enable the pursuit of options to staff cuts.
“We have been talking to our members about examining cost-cutting measures that are underpinned by initiatives that include reducing waste and saving on electricity consumption as well as elements of internal reorganization that could save on operational costs. The fact of the matter is, however, that there are limits beyond which some businesses will not be able to go without arriving at a point where displacing labour has to be considered,” Chintamani said.
And according to the GCCI President the continuous decline in markets for goods produced in the country’s manufacturing sector and the consequential loss of jobs and spending power will inevitably have consequences for employment levels in the commercial sector.
Meanwhile, Chintamani told Stabroek Business that the private sector would wish to see a speeding up of initiatives announced by government to help respond to the economic challenges that have arisen out of the global economic crisis. He said that one of the difficulties with promised state initiatives was that they often take too long to materialize, a circumstance that creates its own problems, given the fact that the need for those interventions is urgent.
Specifically, Chintamani said that government needs to move swiftly to implement a job creation programme that might conceivably include a joint initiative with the Georgetown City Council to undertake a major labour-intensive programme to rehabilitate the city. Chintamani said that he was also keen to see the implementation of the initiatives promised by government in the 2009 budget to finance the strengthening of the agricultural sector at the levels of supporting the expansion of existing agricultural ventures and supporting the creation of new ones, particularly in the small business sector. Meanwhile, according to Chintamani, the central role identified for sugar in financing budgetary expenditure this year demands that the production of cane to “feed” the new Skeldon Factory be treated as an important priority. While declining to comment on a suggestion made to this newspaper by former Executive Director of the Guyana Office for Investment (Go-Invest) Professor Ivor Mitchell that cane be imported into Guyana for the Skeldon Factory, Chintamani said that government should move to give “every support, including financial assistance” to farmers who are able to provide cane for the Skeldon factory. “It is that important,” he added.
Meanwhile, according to Chintamani a point has been reached where government must consider a salary increase for public sector workers. He said that apart from the fact that public sector workers had received no significant salary increase for some time, a meaningful salary increase at this time would raise the level of spending power and help create the kind of demand that could make a difference to the commercial sector.
