Dear Editor,
I am an overseas-based Guyanese who is very interested in returning to do serious business in Guyana. In my opinion where people see “roadblocks” I see potential. Guyana has exponential potential to do and develop business.
However Editor, to my great chagrin I had a most “interesting” experience trying to conduct a transaction at the GRA Office on Camp Street, Friday Oct. 24, 2014. I went into the office at 12PM to conduct said transaction, and the entire section for my transaction was out to lunch!
There was absolutely no one to help me. Someone replied “those people don’t work through lunch time”. I have never been to any country, in all my travels, where you cannot make a business transaction because every single person has gone to lunch at the same time!
Now Editor, something seems negligent about this situation. It has come to my understanding that this is the norm across many places of business in Guyana. I believe it, as I have tried many times when abroad to call places of business at lunch time and no one even answers the phone!
So my question is Editor, how do we progress as a nation where business is concerned, and how do we successfully attract external stakeholders and investors if we don’t have the right business ethics and mentality?
It should occur to people here that lunch time is when most working people who have a 9 – 5 job do their transactions. We need to organize ourselves better here in Guyana, as a country that once upon a time used to be the frontrunner in the region for many things!
Yours faithfully,
Nicholas McDavid
