The burden of our responsibility as the Stabroek News’ weekly Business Supplement is to publish stories and points of view on issues pertaining to the growth, development, challenges, limitations, successes and failures of the local business community. Our editorial focus must also cover government’s perspective on business and the business community if for no other reason than that it is axiomatic that government and the private sector are, in a very real sense, partners in the growth and development of the country’s economy.
Often, for reasons that have to do, mostly, with the pace at which private enterprise moves, it is difficult to secure a routinized and sustained account of the status of business with anything resembling reliable periodicity.
A few weeks ago, at the request of senior officials of the private sector, including officials of both the Private Sector Commission and the Guyana Manufacturers and Services Association (GMSA) a meeting was convened with the editor of the Stabroek Business. Arising out of that meeting was an understanding regarding the desirability of a regular and reliable flow of information to the public on matters pertaining to the business community. What was also agreed was that such information as is disseminated should help to educate businesses in their various fields of endeavour. One should add that a similar arrangement already exists between this newspaper and the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI).
The lead story in today’s Stabroek Business arising out of an interview with President of the GMSA Eon Caesar is the first significant outcome of our recent meeting with private sector officials. We believe that the information provided by Mr Caesar in today’s issue will serve to enlighten readers, as much in the private and public sectors as amongst regular readers on the thinking of the GMSA on a number of issues.
The GMSA has also agreed on the desirability of a reliable line of communication with the Stabroek Business in order that its point-of-view on matters pertaining to the manufacturing sector and the private sector as a whole can benefit, periodically, from the requisite level of public access
A similar understanding has been reached with the PSC and the Chairman of that organization, is already in receipt of an outline of the questions which the Stabroek Business would wish to raise with him. In those questions we will seek to probe the relationship between government and the private sector as well as other long-standing considerations that have to do with things like taxation, the services of the customs administration, consumer protection and the creation of conditions that are convivial to encouraging foreign investment. We anticipate that the PSC will contact us in the shortest possible time to enable the completion and publication of the outcomes of that interview. We fully expect that there will be continuity to this process.
Government, one expects, would be mindful of giving public expression to its views on private sector issues through the media. It has to be said that all state agencies are not equally forthcoming when it comes to the dissemination of information and that from a media perspective, bureaucracy and prevarication can become formidable irritants. It has to be said, however, that the Ministry of Business, particularly, has been forthcoming on issues and that it has facilitated one particularly useful interview with GO-Invest under its new CEO. Another tilt at the state investment entity would be welcome.
Forging stronger links and creating a greater culture of openness in the flow of information between the public and private sector entities, on the one hand, and the various publics, on the other, is a critical function of the Stabroek Business. It does no harm, we believe, to seek to provide assurances, as best we can, that it is not an undertaking that we take likely.
