–hostility deemed ineffective
Former chairman of the Private Sector Commission (PSC) Capt Gerry Gouveia believes the private sector will be better served by engaging the government in an attempt to address some of its concerns rather than adopting an attitude of permanent hostility.
Speaking at the commission’s AGM on Friday, Gouveia said he is concerned with the existing notion in some quarters, that the private sector could only be effective in circumstances where it struck “a posture of permanent hostility to government over one issue or another.” He identified issues such as “bottlenecks within the Customs and Trade Administration; bottlenecks caused by the red tape and bureaucrats in the prevailing investment climate; the protracted discourse on the issue of tax reform; the impact of an unreliable national electricity supply” as some of the problems facing the private sector.
Gouveia told the gathering at Duke Lodge, that energies needed to be dedicated towards the essential public/ private sector partnership without which there can be no economic growth. “We must be judged by the quality of our effort at the negotiating table to persuade government of the importance of infusing those elements of change into the environment in which the private sector has to work,” he said.
“In our circumstances, aggression and confrontation are no substitute for patience, discipline and constructive engagement,” Gouveia said. “If, through a posture of confrontation, we deny ourselves the facility of constructive engagement with government, we simultaneously deny ourselves the only legitimate facility for negotiating those changes that we seek.”
Meanwhile, Gouveia delivered a scathing attack against some businessmen who he said contributed significantly to the garbage-ridden state of the city.
“For me the state of our capital is no less shameful than the total shamelessness of those business houses that appear quite content to pursue the delivery of goods and services in an immediate environment of filth and squalor,” Gouveia said.
He said that these businesses continue to choke the city with garbage daily and leave the City Council to deal with the mess they have left behind.
Gouveia urged private sector bodies to move the condition of the city to the front of their agendas and called on businesses to pay their rates and taxes.
Former deputy chairman Ramesh Dookhoo said the PSC believes that “Guyana’s path to development is enshrined in the National Competitiveness Strategy.” He pointed out that “the strategy sets out what needs to be done to improve the business climate in Guyana, which is key to providing the opportunities needed to allow entrepreneurship, innovation, job creation and export competitiveness to thrive.”
Dookhoo, who was elected as the new chairman at Friday’s elections, told the gathering that the “implementation of the strategy is critical for the success of all our industries and sectors, for small businesses and for large businesses.” According to him, over the past year, the PSC has collaborated with the National Competitiveness Strategy Unit “to drive priority actions within the National Competitive-ness Strategy.”
He urged all private sector associations to actively engage the strategy and use it as a basis on which to build a cooperative and constructive relationship with the government.
Minister of Finance, Dr Ashni Singh, in his feature address, stressed that the administration is committed to supporting the private sector. Singh expressed concern that the government is not given enough credit for its efforts especially by “a politically motivated sub-set” of the local media, some international organisations, members of the diplomatic circle and some members of the private sector.
Responding to concerns that there was “too much politics” in the country, Singh said that in many societies, including the more developed ones “sharp political debates” were common.
He also said that Guyana was not the only country where bureaucratic challenges existed and needed to be overcome.
As it relates to the media, Singh said that confrontation between the government and media outlets is not unusual and he pointed to recent clashes between the White House and Fox News to support this.
The Finance Minister also defended Guyana’s relatively low rank on the Heritage Foundation’s Economic Freedom Index and said that it painted a negative picture of the country as a business and tourism environment. He said the administration scored poorly in some areas because it had intervened to make the lives of its people easier.
The PSC in its annual report for 2009 stated that it had realized total revenue of $19.76 million, with $6.4 million being received under the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) project. Total staffing cost for the year totalled $14,098,623 and $4,034,818 of this was paid out of the PSC’s funds while the remaining amount was paid out of the funds from CIDA.
