-Ram & McRae survey finds
The private sector’s confidence in the economy has increased over the past year citing consumer spending power, the price for fuel, electricity supply and finding new markets among factors which may have the most impact on their business in 2010.
Chartered accountant Christopher Ram along with a team from the Ram & Mc Rae accounting firm presented the findings of the annual business outlook survey as 2010 approaches, to members of the media yesterday at the firm’s Waterloo Street location.
According to the business outlook survey, as 2009 comes to a close, of the 59 private sector entities which took part in the survey, 61% reported that their business’s performance for 2009 was in line with their expectations, while 29% of the participants reported that their respective business’s performance was worse than expected; the remaining 10% reported that their business’s performance exceeded their expectations. Ram said that the stability of the exchange rate may have contributed to the private sector endorsing confidence in the economy this year.
The survey revealed that 46% of the respondents projected no change in the level of their business operations for 2010 while 53% projected an increase and significantly, none of the respondents projected a decrease, the survey noted. Among the reasons given by those within the sector who are not expecting a change in the level of their business operations were the performance of the economy, the global financial crises as well as tax policies of the government. On the other hand, the businesses expecting a change in the level of their operations cited new products/services development, upgrading of technology and improvement of existing products as the principal strategies which may impact positively on their operations.
As regards government’s handling of events which were considered critical in 2009, results of the survey indicated that the administration won overwhelming support for its pursuit of the Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS) as well as the new Anti-Money Laundering and Countering of Terrorism Act. On the down side the administration’s non-investigation of the collapse of insurance company CLICO (Guyana) and the continuation of its monopoly on radio were listed as issues attracting the highest levels of discontent from the private sector.
The survey for the first time also covered the services provided by 21 public sector entities and the impact the operations of such entities have had on businesses. In this regard the Guyana Power and Light – 44 of 53 respondents (83%), the Guyana Police Force 38 of 56 respondents (68%) and the Ministry of Home Affairs 36 of 53 respondents (68%) received the worst ratings and lowest overall scores in the categories, poor (ineffective) or marginally ineffective.
On the other hand the Ministry of Agriculture, the Bank of Guyana and the Ministry of Labour received high ratings, featuring in the moderately effective to excellent categories.
The survey also sought to gauge the private sector’s views on the effectiveness of private sector/non-governmental organizations and of the 10 organizations which were put to the respondents, 80% of the participants rated the Trades Union Congress (TUC) slightly ahead of the Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Guyana (FITUG) (84%) in terms of being ineffective or marginally effective. The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Guyana and the Guyana Manufacturing and Services Association (GMSA) received high ratings in terms of effectiveness with the latter organization seen as ‘very effective’.
The survey noted that the administration has failed to address critical issues such as tax reform, corruption and white collar crime. It also noted that the administration has failed to demonstrate the will or the capacity to deal with the ‘criminalized’ segment of the economy.
The Guyana Business Outlook Survey 2010, the 15th in its annual series, drew participation from business entities within the 10 administrative regions. Business entities of varying sizes, organizational structures and products/services offered in different sectors of the economy participated in the survey. Copies of the survey will be presented to political leaders, government officials, business leaders, investors and international financial institutions among other entities.
