Each Friday, Stabroek Business gives a fascinating insight into efforts by micro, small and medium-scale businesses to plot their own journeys to success which at the same time often leaves the thinking reader to ponder what exactly is being done by the government and the private sector to enable them to grow.
In the June 22 edition, the pride of Starr Computers was palpable as it spoke about having assembled computers locally for the last 20 years, something that not very many people would have known about. Its inspiration, Mr Mike Mohan spoke of how motherboards had to be assembled then compared to their present modular form and how its technical department can turn out up to 100 computers daily. Its recent brand, the Starr X-Finity sells for $69,000. It leaves one to wonder whether the government and the private sector are making a good enough effort on behalf of companies like Starr considering that assembly of computers and light manufactures – albeit with foreign inputs – is a rare occurrence.
Why haven’t companies like Starr and any others with similar capability been given pride of place at the centre of the government’s One Laptop per Family Programme? Is it possible that a programme to supply 90,000 laptops to poor families across the country should see exclusively foreign manufactured computers being thrust upon Guyanese? It is possible that Starr’s output might not have suited the specifications sought for the OLPF programme but was there no option at all in the purchasing of computers for general use for the programme or to enable it to benefit from local assembly of the imported computers. It is left to be seen if local assembly under the Chinese company Haier at an industrial park will materialize as promised under the OLPF. However, somewhere in the conceptualizing of this 90,000 computers programme there should have been a place for Starr and others without a devaluing of the product or procurement standards.
The same edition also profiles the efforts of Mr Netram Ramanan in the local juice market. He has persevered in a family-owned business since 1982 and is hoping to bump up juice production from 300 gallons per day to 2,000 gallons per day. It is the sort of business which with shepherding and expertise can go places without the high overheads of bigger operations. He has had a bad experience with exporting which caused him to focus exclusively on the local market. It is the type of operation that the small business agencies and investment promoter Go-Invest should be helping. Help could be extended as it relates to bottling, labelling and packaging and for the export market there are onerous hurdles to be surmounted in relation to quality control. Surely, however, the name of the game has to be exports and for manufacturers like Mr Ramanan who has displayed staying power there should be help to get to the next level.
Again in the same edition, a subsidiary of De Sinco Trading has embarked upon the repackaging of milk powder coming all the way from New Zealand. Unless it can displace the main suppliers completely, the benefit to the local economy will not be significant save for the small number of jobs created. However there must be downstream opportunities. Why not incentivize its operations to do other types of packaging – plantain chips, etc as opposed to having foreign brands swamp the local market? De Sinco should be complimented on the steps to diversify its business and it should be encouraged to engage in other areas that will create even more jobs and added value to products made right here.
The very edition carries a taut and illuminating snapshot of the farmers’ market just north of the Guyana Fire Service which kicks into high gear from around midnight to 7 am from Monday to Saturday. The veritable cornucopia that is available and the apparently robust demand for items such as chopped eddoe leaf in plastic bags provide an insight into how niche markets develop and how with even better organizing larger opportunities for markets can be cracked open.
The June 15th edition of Stabroek Business highlighted the efforts of the Ganesh brothers who established a $50M mall after remigration from Canada. It is this type of reverse flow of capital that is needed. Just as easily as they invested in a mall that will provide a hub for sales and job creation there may be productive ventures in Rosignol that the investment promotion agency can interest them in as is the case with the Homeline Furnishings Department store in Rose Hall.
It was quite a revelation to read about Mrs Sahodori Megnauth in the June 8th edition who has made the transition to hydroponic production of vegetables at middle age. Her prowess in this field was showed off recently and her toil has enabled her to contribute meaningfully to the upkeep of her family. She has not been averse to risk and has invested in an 18 ft by 24 ft shade house which gives her a fortnightly harvest. Hers is a story of industriousness and provided a living example which Partners of the Americas was keen to showcase. This is exactly the kind of venture that micro farmers in flood-ravaged communities can take on with greater certainty of crops getting to market instead of the unfocused and ill-conceived Grow More Food Campaign.
The enterprising Mr Leslie Anthony also had a story to tell in that edition of his travails with the mango export business. He is entirely at the mercy of the airlines for space and whenever they call he delivers and says a prayer in the hope that there are no delays and his produce gets to market. As he put it “Each time cargo leaves Guyana, I am shipping at my own risk”. He was commendably introduced to the export market by the New Guyana Marketing Corporation but surely by now the government should have been able to clinch more secure cargo arrangements that would enable exporters like Mr Anthony to broaden their market and lessen the risk and heartache.
With growing concerns in the region about the inaccessibility of the Trinidadian market and a range of non-tariff barriers further afield, the government, its support agencies and the private sector have to do a lot more to take local manufacturers and exporters into a new orbit.
