Business

*Prices only represent the average Wholesale Farmgate and Retail Prices at the above mentioned markets and are NOT prices set by the Guyana MArketing Corporation or Ministry of Agriculture.

The probe that the Stabroek Business has been conducting these past several weeks in order to determine how small and micro-businesses have been faring in the restrictive environment of COVID-19 has been, in more ways than one, revealing.

Gold Prices for the three day period ending Thursday July 9, 2020

Even as the coffee manufacturer, Amy’s Pomeroon Foods Inc (APFI) continues, along with other local agro-processors, to feel the economic squeeze associated with a weak domestic market, and latterly, the wider economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic, the company’s chief executive officer, Louis Holder, has outlined to this newspaper a series of measures which he believes can grow local businesses and “keep Guyanese employed and the economy resilient.”

Better known for her contribution to the local fashion industry over the years, Guyanese businesswoman Sonia Noel, along with women from other countries in the region and the USA, will ‘stage’ a virtual event from Tuesday, July 7 to Sunday July, 10 as part of the launch of two collections of writings, namely, “Women Across Borders: Fulfilling Purpose With A Mission” and “Rising From the Ashes”, which were compiled and published in 2018 and 2019, respectively. 

Andrea Seechun is not one of those women for whom being a farmer means managing an enterprise from behind a desk, balancing the books, and not knowing one end of a hoe from the other.

Against the backdrop of loss of markets and general economic downturn confronting various sectors of the global economy, information technology industry specialists are reporting a strong link between the advent of COVID-19 and a significant increase in the global demand for personal computers (PCs).

Three small business owners in the agro-processing sector have told the Stabroek Business that official support for struggling small and micro businesses has to go beyond the grants currently being offered by the state-run Small Business Bureau (SBB) since these are unlikely to make a significant impact on the survival of enterprises that are now on the brink of total collapse.

Universally regarded as a uniquely important cog in the global wheel of environmental preservation the Amazon rainforest would appear to be again coming under the assertive scrutiny of environment watchers over what is believed to be a fresh surge of abuse of the area emanating from Brazil.

Kitco Market Data Gold Prices for the three day period ending Thursday July 2, 2020

We are entering the second full weekend since a significant resumption of trading in the city following the advent of the COVID-19-driven virtually complete shutdown of business in the capital.

*Prices only represent the average Wholesale Farmgate and Retail Prices at the above mentioned markets and are NOT prices set by the Guyana MArketing Corporation or Ministry of Agriculture.

Still some distance away from recovering from the ongoing impact of the coronavirus pandemic, the Caribbean would appear to be already looking beyond that challenge and focussing on the growth of its niche markets in Europe.

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the local business community has pushed more than 50% of businesses in the manufacturing sector into a condition of partial operation and forced the complete cessation of operations of more than 17% of the enterprises.

The global accounting community is being cautioned that some of the circumstances arising out of the current COVID-19 pandemic has given rise to a higher likelihood of accounting-related fraud, the United States-based International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) has warned.

Communication technology infrastructure and services that inhibit the ability of the Caribbean to make adjustments to the manner in which business and educational pursuits are undertaken in the current COVID-19 environment continues to be a much-discussed issue across the region.

Hastily adopted by some entities in the region as an emergency response to the advent of COVID-19, “remote work” is likely to become “a permanent option” for jobs that so allow, with more than half the Chief Financial Officers (CFOs) in the Caribbean saying they plan to improve the remote working experience, a recently released report on a June 8-11 study undertaken by international business consultancy firm, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) says.

As if Venezuela’s economic woes were not enough to demand the full-time attention of President Nicholas Maduro and his government, the administration in Caracas must contend as well with the pressures of working out just how it extricates 18.1 million barrels of the country’s oil stuck at sea on an estimated sixteen tankers from the grip of United States-imposed sanctions that international refiners, mindful of threatened penalties by the Donald Trump administration, are avoiding like the proverbial plague.