In what is one of the earliest concrete recommendations from the manufacturing sector regarding how the Sovereign Wealth Fund (SWF) garnered from the country’s oil and gas earnings can be used to strengthen the other sectors of the country, the Guyana Manufacturing & Services Association (GMSA) says that it would wish to see resources from the Fund target the aggressive pursuit of the establishment of a value-added manufacturing sector, underpinned by deployment of a “cluster approach” by local small and medium-sized enterprises (SME’s).
This was one of several recommendations put forward by GMSA President Clinton Williams during the course of his Wednesday December 18 address to the GMSA’s twenty fourth Annual Presentation Awards and Dinner at the Pegasus Hotel.
The call for more focussed government attention to providing resources for the strengthening of the various sub-sectors linked to the manufacturing sector came against the backdrop of what, in recent years, has been little if any real movement in this area despite what have been reportedly amicable exchanges between government officials and delegations from the manufacturing sector.