Government assistance to access financing for small and start-up businesses, along with the need for ease in doing business took focus yesterday when President Irfaan Ali and Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo held a closed-door meeting with Guyana’s Private Sector.
“A number of issues were discussed but the whole issue of local content tied into accessing loans for small and start-up businesses to make them competitive in this emerging oil economy was a key area,” a private sector participant told Stabroek News following the meeting.
“How do we get Guyanese to get loans to develop businesses and cutting the red tape and overall change of the attitude to especially the banks was discussed. There was a complaint of one business that took five days to set up an account and everyone was saying that person was lucky because what happens to the business that takes five months,” another participant said.
The meeting which was held at the Pegasus Hotel in Kingston, Georgetown, lasted from around 3:30 pm to after 7pm yesterday with both sides saying they had positive feedback.
The Private Sector has now committed to submitting to government, a technical paper on proposals for a partnership towards the holistic development of the business sector.
President Ali told this newspaper that he was pleased with the outcome of the meeting and both sides will now work towards moving Guyana forward. “It was a meeting that the Private Sector requested; a closed meeting. There was a frank exchange of views and ideas on our country moving forward and where the Private Sector sees themselves playing a greater role. Also defining those roles; the issues and understanding in a more detailed way the agenda for moving forward of the government and Private Sector.”
He emphasised, “It was productive, extremely productive.”
Vice President Jagdeo explained that yesterday’s meeting was organised following a forum with Private Sector executives last month and where government decided it wanted greater participation and to be present to hear for themselves from local business persons.
“Earlier last month the private sector leadership met with the president and at that meeting it was decided that we should have a broader meeting with the private sector that involved more people. We wanted to share the vision of the government and reach a common understanding as to where we are going in certain areas and also make ourselves available to answer any concerns the private sector may have. That was the purpose of the meeting here today,” Jagdeo told the Stabroek News.
“It went extremely well, we had a lot of feedback from them… discussions generally,” he added.
Much of what he said was echoed by Chairman of the Private Sector Commission Paul Cheong. “We had a very good session. The President and Vice President were very open and we had a good dialogue. We have a lot of strategies and plans we have to work on and iron them out on paper, and then present to government. It [the document] is on overall business development; things that can help develop the private sector to make it more efficient and how government can help. The private sector is very ready and willing as a development partner for Guyana.”
He added, “We see us working in harmony with government to realise the dreams for a better Guyana. Today’s session was good where we had both government and private sector in one room, where we can share ideas together and plan to harmonise the way we use our resources; both human and other, towards a common objective. We believe the discussion was well received and you could also see from the body language it was good.”
Some participants noted that both Ali and Jagdeo emphasised that government believes the Private Sector has to take the initiative and lead the way in terms of business ideas and the sector’s development. “It came over also that everything was thrown back to us, and in us I mean the Private Sector. When the issue of getting loans, government said that we have to work harder and go out and explore ways. One idea was that we form a consortium of sorts to get a big loan and then the Private Sector could relend at competitive rates,” one representative said.
“The Private Sector was told to put its resources together and come up with ideas to resolve the issues it faces. We have to find solutions. But we also have to look at the chicken and the egg picture. Why go to invest and build a factory and you don’t have guarantees about what is coming?” another questioned.
Another participant mentioned that Jagdeo explained that when looking at financing, the Private Sector should not only look to institutions like the Institute of Private Enterprise Development, as that was “set up for a specific purpose”, and since that purpose has passed, they should look at “new age and new ways.” “He said that with changing times requires new age thinking; we have to look at the new age and new ways. We were challenged to come up with a plan, knock heads. He basically said that the private sector has to be the engine and start the discussion, take the plans to government and together we will see what is practicable and what isn’t,” he said.
