Celebrating his company’s 25th Anniversary on Friday, owner of Ming’s Products and Services (MPS), Stanley Ming has urged the business community to partner with government to ensure that those less privileged are given a chance to be a meaningful participant in everyday life.
”It is incumbent on the business sector to create wealth and opportunities and together with the government ensure that the lesser privileged, the elderly and the sick are provided with the necessary conditions to be a meaningful participant in everyday life and its activities,” he said, according to the text of his speech made available to Stabroek News.
According to Ming, he believes that the natural tendency of a human being is to live a normal productive life where he or she can provide the basic needs of the family, such as a home, food, a good education and facilities for the development of their siblings. “Unfortunately, when conditions do not provide such opportunities there is a tendency to pursue other means of survival, which are not in keeping with societal norms,” he said, even as he highlighted the work done in the Tiger Bay community by his company to uplift the lives of residents. The company is located in the depressed area of Georgetown and Ming spoke of how MPS opted to invest in the community, through the development of good business/ community relations, premised on uplifting the quality of life of residents and by making investments in their children’s education
“Our continuous investments in the community have certainly paid off. We could not be where we are today had we not worked with the community the way we have,” Ming said.
He highlighted that having achieved business success, his company continued to reach out to other communities through strategic investments geared mainly toward educational development. He highlighted MPS partnering with Banks DIH and Shell Antilles (Guyana) Limited in 1998 to assist children living in riverain communities surrounding Bartica, by providing them with a fully equipped fiberglass boat, which the company manufactured along with a Yamaha 75 HP engine, and the first year’s supply of fuel, to facilitate their attendance at the Bartica secondary school.
“I firmly believe that education is the solution to most of the problems facing Guyana and other developing countries,” he said.
President David Granger and First Lady Sandra Granger attended the event to commemorate the company’s anniversary which was held at the Pegasus Hotel and in congratulating the Ming family, Granger said that the company has always been in the vanguard of corporate responsibility and many humanitarian organisations have benefited tremendously from the MPS’s generosity.
“We have a company that is not afraid to engage with the community; that is not afraid to be a visionary; that is not afraid to be a pacesetter and this is what we have seen from MPS over the last 25 years,” a statement from the Ministry of the Presidency quoted Granger as saying.
MPS was incorporated in October 1989 and started business in February 1990 at the upper flat of the Farfan and Mendes building on Urquhart Street, Georgetown. Eventually, the company purchased the properties owned by the then Guyana Transport Services Limited.
