In what was a fruitful encounter, the Private Sector Commission (PSC) on Friday breakfasted with the media during which it laid out its priority projects and issues it would like to be addressed. It also used the engagement to present its position on far-reaching recommendations contained in the Eighth Actuarial Review of the National Insurance Scheme (NIS).
That review contained a dire assessment of the Scheme and consequently recommended urgent implementation of corrective measures such as raising the contribution rates and lifting the pensionable age in a phased manner.
Given the significant impact that these measures could have on the private sector and its employees it is not surprising that the PSC has said it will not support their implementation until it is assured that the NIS is operated in an efficient manner.
The PSC was particularly interested in advocating for two infrastructural projects: the desilting of the Demerara Harbour and the long-promised Amaila Falls hydro project.
The dredging of the harbour and its upkeep would naturally result in the lower cost of imported goods as it would enable vessels with larger draughts into Port Georgetown. As of now goods for Guyana are mostly offloaded in Jamaica and Trinidad and loaded onto smaller feeder vessels.
Even then, these vessels cannot come at full capacity and the present course sees vessels going from Trinidad to Suriname and then to Guyana. This bulks up the cost of imported good and the crucial statistic is that the Demerara Harbour handles around 90% of the country’s imported goods.
Provided that the Amaila Falls project lives up to its publicly stated attributes and GPL can efficiently and effectively transmit power, the private sector is convinced that electricity supply will be stable and cheaper compared to what currently prevails. Considering that electricity costs eat up a large portion of business expenses, the PSC has made this one of its major planks. The PSC did however note that this project still has a far way to go.
There was another matter which the PSC rightly described as a necessity which it also wants front and centre on the agenda. This was better and expanded solid waste management and a lasting solution to the garbage crisis in the capital. There will be no quarrel here at all.
It will be interesting to see how the private sector proceeds on these fronts. The private sector is a vital part of civil society but its effectiveness has been called into question for decades. There have also been concerns in some quarters that the ruling PPP/C has inserted itself into its varied branches to secure advancement for its candidates so as to limit pressure that can come from the business sector. This no doubt has come at a cost to the effectiveness of the umbrella body.
The private sector has also been riven by competing interests dependent on which of its arms was in the ascendancy at any given point. What boggles the mind is that a project as pivotal as the dredging of the Demerara Harbour would have fallen by the wayside and not have been aggressively and relentlessly pursued by all concerned. It has been a matter frequently spoken of by the Shipping Association of Guyana but not effectively championed.
On the obverse side, the private sector priorities further highlight how rudderless PPP/C governments have been for two decades in this silted up harbour of private sector opportunities. Surely if it makes any sense at all to invest state money in a fancy project like the Marriott Hotel it makes far better reasoning for the state to dredge Port Georgetown and maintain it. After all, the cost of goods to the end consumer would be cheaper and local companies would see better bottom lines and be more competitive with their Caribbean counterparts.
The private sector has raised this matter through the government’s Competitiveness Unit but expedition has been missing.
That the PPP/C has been in office for 20 unbroken years but is yet to comprehensively address Port Georgetown is a damning reflection of its lack of a well-constructed development plan for the country and its parochial interest in the private sector. There was a time when Port Georgetown was dredged primarily for the use of bauxite boats. Even then there had been an issue of shared costs and responsibilities. When the Demerara River-based bauxite industries downscaled the dredging became precarious and was left to the decrepit 1980s dredge Steve N to undertake the task. When it was not in service it meant that nothing would be done. The last word was that the government was looking to acquire a new dredge for the task. The nonchalance with which the dredging and the concerns of the private sector have been addressed by the government is disheartening but it revalidates a widely held view that the government’s world view of the private sector is confined to meeting the interests of a handful of its cronies and favoured businessmen.
It also exposes vacuity with respect to the larger vision for the economic development of the country. From Demerara to Lethem and Charity to Springlands much of the mercantile potential is wedded to the dredging of the river and the development of a deep water harbour somewhere. Yet 20 years on, the PPP/C is still navigating sandy hills in the quest of finding a path to the summit of a giant mountain top.
While infrastructural connections with Brazil have to be carefully considered and studied, the possible synergies for trade with this booming southern economy beckon the local private sector but the infrastructure is missing. It was only last week that the Minister of Foreign Affairs signed a MOU with the Brazilian Minister of External Affairs for the creation of a working group which would consider the upgrading of the road to Lethem. The port would also be on the agenda of this group. But which year would any of this materialize considering the 20-year record of non-achievement by the government on these matters?
So let this be a test for both the PSC and the government. The dredging of Port Georgetown and the cleansing of the city are both highly commendable projects that can reverberate with many positives as long as they are maintained. It will be a measure of the effectiveness of the PSC if it can swiftly work out the cost sharing for this project and demonstrate the can-do resolve that inheres in the private sector. For the government, it is really just a matter of waking up to reality and operating with a visionary development plan.
