Business Editorial

Municipal officials are doing their best to put a brave face on the problem.

Just how vulnerable the global economy can sometimes become to its interdependence is graphically reflected in the threatened worldwide and seemingly worsening flooding currently afflicting Thailand.

The Guyana Telephone & Telegraph Company (GT&T) has again raised the issue of the damage being done to its telecommunications infrastructure through acts of vandalism that target mostly its insulated copper cable.

In the wake of the violent Piari robbery and the spate of deaths that followed, the Guyana Police Force, the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC) and the Guyana Gold and Diamond Miners Association have now decided to move against the many illegal ‘shops’ that are operating in the gold-mining regions of Guyana.

Official and public chatter about the prospects which the 2009 official opening of the Takutu Bridge held for increasing access to Brazilian markets for goods manufactured in Guyana has more or less subsided beneath the recognition that while the completion and commissioning of the bridge was an important step in that direction, the completion of an all-weather road between Linden and Lethem was still a factor – perhaps the major factor to be considered if locally manufactured products were to benefit fully from what is a huge Brazilian market.

There are aspects of the organization and execution of GuyExpo which are still are still in need of remedial attention, a fact that was again pointed out to this newspaper last week by some of the exhibitors.

Agriculture Minister Robert Persaud’s disclosure that the skills that are necessary to run the Skeldon Sugar Factory properly simply do not exist within the company or, for that matter, within the country is probably not all that surprising when one considers that despite the much-touted view that the skills base with the sugar industry is sufficiently adequate, the performance of the industry, particularly its field performance, has been, in large measure, a function of the continuous flow of skilled managers out of GuySuCo.

It probably comes as a surprise to Guyanese consumers that the issue of sub-standard Chinese goods was raised at a recent Guyana/China forum in Port of Spain and that the Chinese state agency responsible for ensuring the smooth functioning of Guyana/China trade and economic relations has agreed to investigate the matter.

Just weeks after the Jagdeo administration’s announcement that it was making yet another generous financial gesture to a Georgetown City Council that simply never seems to possess the liquidity to meet even its most important debts, we are hearing again – at least according to the state-run Chronicle newspaper that the municipality is seeking to “recoup monies for the payment of salaries, garbage collection and the procurement of materials and supplies for the city.”

Earlier this week during an event held to mark the launch of GuyExpo 2011, President Bharrat Jagdeo commented on the role that the annual product promotion event plays in providing a platform for the country’s small businesses to highlight their products and services.

The upbeat soundings among international banks and investment companies regarding the likely movement in the price of gold in the short to medium term are manifested in predictions ranging from US$2,000.00 an ounce by year end to one particular prediction of US$5,000.00 an ounce in the foreseeable future.

As we pointed out in an article that appears in this issue of Stabroek Business the local aviation industry has a reputation for discretion as far as its public profile is concerned though recent circumstances have more-or-less thrust the sector into the limelight.

For some years now President Hugo Chavez in Venezuela has been raising the spectre of nationalizing the country’s gold industry.

For several years now the Food and Drug Analyst Department has been complaining about the paucity of resources with which to carry out its functions which functions include the monitoring of food and drug imports with a view to determining their safety and fitness or otherwise for human consumption and ensuring, as far as possible, that expired foodstuff is removed from the shelves of supermarkets and outlets rather than sold to consumers at risk to their health.

These are challenging times for the aviation sector in the Caribbean.

Conceivably, the Consumer Affairs Act of 2011 can significantly address the relationship between sellers and buyers in the local commercial culture and there is every reason why presidential assent should be hastened and full and effective implementation realized at the earliest possible time.

Crime and its implications for citizens’ security in the Caribbean have once again come into sharp focus through the first ever Caribbean Human Develop-ment Report in Citizen Security.

The Government of Guyana has just announced the allocation of a $222.9 million contract to the private sector firm Digital Technology for the supply of computers and accessories to secondary schools throughout the country.

In what, according to media reports emanating from New Delhi, was an open and shut multi-million dollar corruption scam, the Indian Textiles Minister Dayanidhi Maran tendered his resignation after it was disclosed that he sought to use his influence to coerce the founder of the privately-run mobile telephone company AIRCEL to sell his stake in the company to a competitor favoured by the now disgraced minister.

Though no definitive pronouncement can be made on the real value of the new Consumer Affairs Act until we see how it works in practice, it has to be said that its intentions, as set out in the actual document are to be applauded.