An APNU+AFC Coalition government’s role in business will be confined to providing the physical and procedural amenities to enable our entrepreneurs to conduct their businesses without governmental interference. We genuinely believe that our people on their own are very capable of identifying new business ventures based on the resources at their disposal. They are capable of (and have been) identifying potential local and overseas markets for their raw materials, machinery, end products, and specialized services. They know what resources they need (incl. technical and financial assistance) to support the smooth flow and growth of their enterprises. The business support organizations in the city and the regions (Chambers of Commerce, the GMSA and PSC) have shown that they have their collective fingers on the pulse of international business affairs and they bring those resources here to promote national development.
We have paid keen attention to the direction taken by a number of under-developed countries that grew quickly because the governments had the foresight to allow the people’s ingenuity to thrive. With a few small scale business ventures evolving, the governments created accommodating policies and agencies that fulfilled the needs of start-up businesses. These included micro financing with easy, friendly short and long-term re-payment packages, and institutions that offered free business development training. Expansive warehouses were built to provide the venturesome with space to ply their trade, to store inventory, and to expand into alternative ventures. Environmentally friendly open spaces were marked and appropriate infrastructure installed to cater for outdoor-type and seasonal businesses. What results in scenarios such as these is the spirit of competition. Would-be entrepreneurs are able to see first-hand the benefits that accrue from the financial and infrastructural facilities in place, and they enter the market with their own products.
Guyanese are known for our inventiveness, and we have at our disposal a plethora of resources that are ripe (the pun is intended) for secondary and tertiary products. Agricultural produce come to mind. The capacity for spin-off industries is tremendous – coconut water and fibre mats; fruit and vegetable juices, jams, jellies and cosmetics; plantain chips, baby porridge and cereal; cassava chips, flour and cassareep; cous-cous, cheeses and butter from raw milk; and condiments from green seasonings like eschallot, celery, thymes and basil.
Our larger industries have been facing a never-ending stream of problems that throw up more than a few giant hurdles which inhibit their operations and cash returns. These roadblocks fall into the category of the government’s obligation to provide that enabling environment. Ranking high among the long slew of complaints from the private sector is the unavailability of stable, reliable electrical power, and high charges, all of which ultimately drive up manufacturing costs. We are still to determine the effects in real terms of the recent 10 percent reduction of GPL’s charges. Add to this scenario the entrenched system of customs delays in document processing and container scanning, all of which result in lost overseas markets, spoilt perishables left sitting on wharves for lengthy periods, and of course, lost revenue.
As usual at election time, the incumbent government is again promising to fix these problems. Thirteen years on and Guyanese are still being promised the implementation of the Single Window Automated System (SWAPS) that almost every port authority across the Caribbean is using to dramatically reduce the time and money spent to process import and export documents and shipments. We were told by the private sector is that the revenue authority informed them about 4 years ago that the SWAPS is too expensive to acquire all at once, but that parts of the system is being installed in increments. However, the majority of importers and exporters are still complaining of long customs delays, and high charges, taxes and payments on the side for their export containers to be scanned on time to meet the shipping schedules.
A few entrepreneurs have had to close their businesses due to lost overseas markets and a few have left Guyana to open similar business ventures in other countries. Guyana loses every time we lose an entrepreneur. The nation loses skills, intellect, tax revenue for the treasury, and potential pull factors/role models for young entrepreneurs.
Apart from electricity, every micro or large scale company in Guyana is affected by the government’s incomprehensible refusal to dredge the Demerara Navigational Channel through which every vessel entering the Demerara Port must pass. Have you ever wondered why there are no cruise ships docked in Port Georgetown, or why Guyanese visitors to neighbouring countries register surprise when they see seven and eight-storeyed cruise liners docked close to the Port of Spain Market (Trinidad), or in Belem City (Brazil), or Kourou (French Guyana), and Paramaribo (Suriname)? Have you ever seen a small 65 foot Feeder vessel bringing imported cargo stuck on a sand bank close to the Georgetown Lighthouse?
Port Georgetown is the hub for all commerce in Guyana. It has always been that way since the original John Fernandes established a small pier in the 1800s. Over time, Port Georgetown was developed and large vessels laden with thousands of tonnes of bauxite ore, sugar, rice, stone, sand and consumable goods sailed out through the same channel that used to be equipped with navigational aids – buoys, lights, etc. These pieces of equipment have not been repaired or replaced for decades despite constant pleas by the business community and their support organizations. Even the sugar industry, the PPP/C’s mainstay, is still forced to export sugar in small quantities, less than half of what the small vessels could carry because of the shallow depth of the river and channel. For more than eight years importers have been forced to transship their cargo from large ships docked in the Kingston Jamaica harbour to small feeder vessels that still have to wait for high tides to pass through the Demerara River Channel.
Around December 2012 the Works Minister declared that his government did not plan to rehabilitate Port Georgetown since the private owners of wharves had enough money to do it. His government’s plan was to construct a deep water harbor in the Berbice River instead. This is as nearsighted a position as there ever was. First, rehabilitation of the harbour’s infrastructure is the government’s responsibility.
Secondly, even tiny nations support more than one sea port. But all the talk of a harbor in the Berbice River was a promise that never evolved into more than a plan.
This election year the PPP/C once again treated Berbicians to the usual basket of rhetoric about the proposed new harbor and what it could mean to their lives. It is our understanding that the idea and blueprint belonged to the foreign oil exploration company CGX which unfortunately encountered financial difficulties in the recent past. The concept is sound on its own merit and should be pursued. Without CGX, all that it required is the will of a government to source funding, equipment and technical expertise.
In the meantime, the Demerara Port remains in dire need of capital rehabilitation. The end result would definitely be cheaper authentic, high quality goods that will lift a heavy burden from the pockets of Guyanese people. They would have an alternative to the inferior quality Chinese products that have flooded local markets and put many businesses out of operation.
(To be continued)
