With growing complaints of reduced spending and a seemingly sluggish economy, President of the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI) Vishnu Doerga says that significant growth in the economy cannot happen overnight and urged patience.
However, he believes that the APNU+AFC government is on the right trajectory in implementing mechanisms and policies that would result in the positive changes everyone hopes for.
As such, he says that while it would take time to realize those growth goals, he is optimistic that it will happen and reminded that the economy did not slump overnight.
“We have taken decades to arre at this place.
If you look at some of the business magazines and you look at articles from 1950,1960…they could have been yesterday’s headlines about the need to diversify, about the need to move away from primary production as what we are doing with rice, sugar and a lot of the commodities we export,” Doerga posited.
“We didn’t listen and we didn’t learn our lessons back then and we are in the same position…in 1930 it said please move away from sugar as soon as possible and everybody agreed but nobody took the action to do so…when it comes to the position we are at right now, with gold rebounding I think we are going to end up with 80% of our six commodities again being the total of our GDP. It is tough to shift from 80% to suddenly go to something else.
He said that the positive impacts Guyana is going to get with projects being implemented, such as a capacity building programme by the GCCI, will contribute, although in small percentages, to holistic development of the economy.
Further, he praised government for its part in managing to see growth in the economy and making necessary plans to keep the rate of growth increasing, such as offering public servants a 10% increase.
The offer he says, would not have come if the private sector was managing public accounts.
“The simple answer is yes, but not with the level of urgency that the private sector would like, and you know private sector people are very impatient. If it could have happened yesterday, we would have loved that.
It is our job as the Chamber, to create the urgency as well, but the path that we are heading in does speak to the changes that are necessary and we have been seeing that over the past year,” Doerga responded when asked if he believes government is moving the economy in the right direction.
He told public servants to rationalize before demanding more of government for salary increases.
“From a purely private sector perspective they should be appreciative of the offer.
If we fool ourselves we are going to create a monster…they might want 25% but where is it going to come from?, he questioned.
“From a private sector perspective, if we were to look at Guyana as a private sector entity there would be no way there would be a salary increase, given that we are just 2% of our GDP growth. How can we pay 10% if we are at 2%?
I am happy I am not the Minister of Finance because there would not have been an increase, because the 2% came from gold, which (revenues) isn’t circulating in this economy,” he added.
The GCCI also wants government to continue to make openings for investment here easier and ensure that local exporters are relieved of the myriad of red tape they face daily.
“What we need them to do is create the facilitative environment, make sure that the revenue authority do all they can to make exports easier …make sure that Go-Invest has enough incentives to get organizations like the IAST (going) …The government has been on a learning curve. I hope this is part of the learning curve,” he said.
Only last week the Alliance for Change (AFC) had hailed Minister of Finance Winston Jordan for stellar works in his sector and urged that Guyanese start preparations for a nearing boom in the economy.
Minister of Business, Dominic Gaskin also argued that while some persons are saying that the economy is not growing, the facts show that the slowdown was due to external factors, but this country is still meeting growth targets set.
He pointed to economic data and current events in neighbouring countries saying that even with all the “stresses” Jordan was able to plan a budget which includes implementing solid economic measures.
