Looking beyond the formidable challenges posed by the advent of the still rampaging COVID-19, the Guyana Manufacturing & Services Association (GMSA) on Wednes-day joined forces with the office of the Inter-American Develop-ment Bank, the Ministry of Agriculture and various non-state and private sector individuals to stage a historic webinar designed to examine opportunities for ensuring that the country’s agriculture sector loses none of its robustness in the post-COVID environment.
Largely seen as the driving force behind the staging of the landmark event, GMSA President Shyam Nokta kicked off the virtual forum by pointing out that it had had its origins in a recent survey undertaken by the GMSA on the impact of COVID-19 on local businesses and particularly the devastating impact which the pandemic continued to have on local small businesses.
“As a Business Support Organisation, the GMSA recognized that we could not simply continue to wait for this situation to change. We needed to act, to adapt, to be proactive. We also recognized that as a body, primarily focused on value adding, we could not ignore the supply aspect of this important sector,” Nokta declared in an address listened to by participants that included representatives of government and the private sector including officials associated with ongoing oil and gas pursuits in Guyana.