Currently in its 125th year of existence, the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI) last year set a modest but noteworthy membership record which, it says, reflects a growing interest by the urban business community in the services it has to offer.
In his message published in the Chamber’s Annual Report, former president Lance Hinds, who concluded a two-year term of office recently, disclosed that during last year the business support organization recruited 32 members, a tribute, he said, to the “focus and effort” of its membership committee. The new inductees into the Chamber fold in 2015 included the Trinidad and Tobago companies PriceWaterhouseCoopers and Fujitsu.
Perhaps more significantly Hinds disclosed that “our review of the past records indicate that this is the highest percentage of new membership in one year.”
Lance Hinds
And in a message which focused on the accomplishments of the Chamber in 2015, Hinds singled out the signing of a $40 million grant agreement with the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) designed to execute a local programme aimed at improving business competitiveness in Guyana and strengthening small and medium enterprises to increase non-traditional exports as one of its standout initiatives.
Setting aside its focus on developing and presenting workshops and training programnmes to further enhance the capacity of the private sector Hinds pointed to the role which he says the chamber has played “to create synergies and partnerships with regional and international organizations,” significantly boosted “when the Caribbean Development Bank’s (CDB) Caribbean Technology Consultancy Services (CTCS) Network appointed the chamber as their national focal point for the execution of their initiatives in Guyana.” The chamber’s partnership with the CDB and the CTCS Network during last year, Hinds said, yielded “a workshop on Modern Techniques for Mould Design and Manufacturing for ceramic pottery producers,” an initiative which he said was designed to “strengthen the capacity of local craftspeople to better position themselves to compete regionally and further afield.”
In his presentation, Hinds also alluded to the chamber’s “partnership with the Canadian Volunteer Services Organization (CUSO) and its collaboration with the USAID’s SKYE programme that enabled the GCCI to host a job exchange “to help graduates of the programme gain employment.”
And according to Hinds, a facet of this programme included gender sensitization programmes aimed at helping participants “to better understand the linkages between gender equality and economic and social factors in the growth of the arts and craft industry.
Mindful of global concerns over food safety-related issues, many of which extend to Guyana, Hinds alluded to the GCCI’s collaboration with the Food and Drug Analyst Department in the hosting of a workshop for the training and certification of local food service managers.
Other business-enhancing fora staged by the chamber in 2015 and to which Hinds alluded in his message included “a seminar of Next Generation Technology” supported by Fujitsu Caribbean
In the area of “advocacy” Hinds said that that during 2015 the chamber focused its efforts on “the development of an enabling environment for business to grow and prosper.” High on the chamber’s list of advocacy initiatives, its former president said, were its engagements with the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) and the Ministry of Business to address “the resolution of outstanding issues regarding VAT and the application of taxes on products used for packaging and shipping.
In his message, Hinds, who is Chief Executive Officer of the information technology firm, Brain Street, also alluded to the chamber’s persistent lobby for the speeding up of ‘the process of telecommunication liberalization and the modernization of intellectual property legislation.”
