The reintroduction of the Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS) on the new PPP/C’s development agenda has been welcomed by the Guyana Manufacturing & Services Association (GMSA) as an initiative that will add impetus to the economic advancement of the country particularly on account of its potential contribution to the agricultural sector.
An article published in the October issue of the GMSA’s newsletter quotes the Association’s President Shyam Nokta as saying that the pursuit by the present administration of the LCDS strategy “will enhance our ability to earn from payments for forest climate and ecosystem services, as we have done under the Guyana-Norway Partnership.”
An announcement back in August by President Irfaan Ali had named Nokta as chairman of the administration’s Local Content Panel and in his comment in the GMSA newsletter, Nokta said that the LCDS had been supportive of small and medium-sized enterprises through grant funding and that those enterprises had included those in agriculture and agro-processing that had made a push for climate-smart agriculture. “We hope that such efforts will be enhanced in a new LCDS so that all who are involved in agriculture, from small farmers, to large companies, from the coast to the hinterland, can be able to enhance their production and productivity across the value chain,” the GMSA quotes Nokta as saying. The GMSA under Nokta’s presidency has been credited with paying enhanced attention to the small and medium-scale farmers and agro-processors, one of its standout initiatives being the staging on two occasions of the UncappeD initiative designed to help create markets for the respective sectors. This, against the backdrop of the otherwise widely held view that local Business Support Organizations (BSOs) had continually demonstrated a palpable indifference to the welfare of small businesses in those sectors.
Nokta has been credited for raising the profile of the GMSA with small businesses in some sectors on account of the staging of the UncappeD event under his leadership of the GMSA.
Under previous PPP/C administrations, Nokta served as adviser to the President and as Head of the Office of Climate Change in the Office of the President where he coordinated assignments relating to the development and implementation of the LCDS and REDD+Partnership with the Kingdom of Norway.
Meanwhile, Nokta is quoted as saying that he hopes that a new LCDS under the present political administration will enhance efforts to ensure that “all who are involved in agriculture, from small farmers, to large companies, from the coast to the hinterland, can be able to enhance their production and productivity across the value chain as we can see agriculture realize its potential, even as we pursue opportunities in oil and gas.”
