During 2018 the Stabroek Business paid a great deal of attention to two issues that are likely to have an important bearing on employment generation and export earnings in the current year. The first of these is the undertaking that came from the Small Business Bureau in December that with effect from the commencement of 2019 the provision enshrined in the country’s Small Business Act for small businesses to be able to secure up to 20 per cent of state contracts valued at up to $30 million each would be activated. That provision is subject to criteria that have a bearing, mostly, on the demonstrable capability of the contractor to complete the contract to the desired specifications.
The second issue has to do with what, for much of last year, had been a high profile joint public/private sector effort to raise the profile of the country’s manufacturing sector, notably the agro processing sector, primarily through product promotion initiatives including two separate editions of the UNCAPPED event held at the Sophia Auditorium and the Providence Stadium, respectively, and the Guyana Trade and Investment Exhibition (GUYTIE) event staged at the Marriott Hotel in September.