The National Competitive-ness Council (NCC) plans to hold a Presidential Summit in November this year, bringing together all stakeholders in the National Competitiveness Strategy, and an organizing committee is being formed to implement this decision.
The Council said in a news release that the central theme of the summit will be investment promotion and doing business in Guyana.
The NCC chaired by President Bharrat Jagdeo recently met for the sixth time and focused on clarifying evolving policies, changing priorities countrywide and advancing the implementation of the National Competitiveness Strategy (NCS). The NCC is the highest level dialogue body between the Government, the business community and organized labour.
Meanwhile, the NCC has committed to removing taxes on renewable light bulbs, thereby approving a recommendation presented by the Energy Strategy Group which is chaired by Prime Minister Samuel Hinds. The NCC also recommended that alternative energy generating equipment will be tax exempt, the release stated.
The Council urged that the Consumer Protection Bill be laid in the National Assembly this year as well as putting into operation the Competitiveness Commis-sion. The Commissioners of the Competitiveness Commis-sion have already been appointed and its secretariat is now being established in order to assist the Commissioners in implementing the Competition and Fair Trading Act of 2006.
The NCC members have decided too to meet every three months and agreed that the National Competitiveness Strategy and the Low Carbon Development Strategy should be seen as working in tandem to drive the economic development of Guyana.
Members of the NCC also endorsed the Trade Sanctions PPDB Action Plan and agreed to its implementation. The Action Plan seeks to reduce the number of procedures, time and cost for cross-border imports and exports and thereby boost Guyana’s trade competitiveness. The Trade Transactions Public Private Dialogue Body (PPDB) is one of several PPDB, established as a result of the fifth NCC.
A decision was also taken to improve the effectiveness of the Investment Promotion Council (IPC), chaired by Go-Invest and the National Advisory Committee on External Negotiations (NACEN), headed by the Minister of Foreign Affairs.
These two public private dialogue bodies are key pillars of the institutional framework advocated by the Chairman of the NCC when the National Competitiveness Strategy was launched in 2006 – together with the Small Business Council, the Infrastructure Strategy Group, The Energy Strategy Group, the Trade Transactions PPDB and the Competitiveness Advisory Team.
The National Competitiveness Council also assented to proposals to develop a policy framework for Guyana’s fledgling aquaculture industry in order to support the development and growth of firms venturing into this key sector.
Besides the President, the government was also represented by Prime Minister Hinds, Minister of Tourism, Industry & Commerce Manniram Prashad, Minister of Transport & Hydraulics Robeson Benn, Minister of Foreign Affairs Carolyn Rodrigues and Chief Executive Officer of GO-Invest Geoffrey Da Siklva.
And representing the private sector and organized labour were Carvil Duncan of the Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Guyana; Gerry Gouveia of the Private Sector Commission; Daniel Gajie for the President of the Association of Regional Chambers of Commerce; Ramesh Dookhoo, Chairman of the Private Sector Commission’s Trade and Investment Sub-Committee and President of the Guyana Manufacturing and Services Association; Patrick Zephyr of the Small Business Council and Michael Correia, a representative of the Private Sector Commission.
