Dear Editor,
I wish to thank Stabroek News for publishing my recent letter (SN Aug 26/21) placing emphasis on promoting financial independence and economic viability of both citizens and at the community level. Your choice of topic (Shift the Concept of Economic Development to Rural Communities) because of severe editing of the original letter probably removed an appropriate topic other than my suggestion (Economic Viability of Our Rural Communities).
Your chosen topic is misleading enough to deserve clarification for the benefit of the public. Economic development concerns the increase in welfare or standard of living of the citizens of a country. The general indicators of this are access to necessities such as adequate housing and water, ability of incomes to meet the necessities/demand of individuals and their households (a proxy test for this locally is being able to save $5000-G10, 000 monthly), and their access to, and availability of the host of social and physical infrastructure such as education, health, adequate transport systems, communications. I go as far as to include the responsiveness of government’s regulatory framework for promoting economic growth by stimulating private sector investment, job creation and export growth. All of the above include the appropriateness of income policies across both the public and private sectors, mechanisms to address the constraints to existing and developing economic sectors, and for emphasis, welfare in rural communities.
It should be clear therefore that there can be no ‘shift’ in economic development to rural communities, only strengthening emphasis on this often marginalized section of economies. This said, both government and the private sector normally evaluate the ability of their incomes and broader set of welfare enhancing policies to address the needs of their employees because the inherent benefits of eliminating poverty and insufficiency include improved output and productivity across institutions, stronger consumer demand, and the creation of a platform for a more educated, globally competitive workforce. With education and health being declared universal rights by the United Nations, removing constraints to the effective delivery of both is an obvious national priority.
In other matters, local businesses are urged to up price trends in material input and retail prices within the context of our difficult economic climate as a consequence of Covid-19. Efforts to increase market share abroad should be actively explored, as daunting as this may be. Benefits often outweigh associated costs here. One economic sector deserving of mention here because of its pivotal impact on welfare is the poultry sector. The average retail price for whole chicken in US cities for July 2021 was US$1.44/lb (~G$ 310) (https://www.bls.gov/regions/mid-atlantic/data/averageretailfoodandenergyprices_usandmidwest_table.htm). This compares to around $380-400/lb in some local supermarkets. Considering that much of the ‘waste’ from our local rice industries can be cheap inputs for locally produced chicken feed, potential investors/interested persons are encouraged to explore feed production facilities and feed technologies on the internet as a basis for evaluating the opportunities for setting up feed factories. This can translate into lower supply-side costs, lowering of prices for locally produced poultry products, while potentially creating competitive advantages regionally.
Sincerely,
Craig Sylvester.
