Business

The APNU-AFC coalition administration on Monday used its maiden budget presentation in the National Assembly to signal its intention to place small business development on the front burner of the country’s economy.

President David Granger’s address in July to a rice forum at the Arthur Chung Convention Centre appeared designed to lift spirits in a sector that has had to absorb the shock of Venezuela’s earlier announcement that Guyana could no longer rely on that country’s rice market under the PetroCaribe Agreement.

One of the issues in Finance Minister Winston Jordan’s 2015 budget presentation that has raised a fair measure of public comment is the announcement that government is allocating $300 million to an urban restoration exercise in the capital.

It is probably about two weeks (or thereabouts) since Mr. Royston King, the new Town Clerk, publicly announced that he would be giving priority attention to the rehabilitation of the collapsed section of the Stabroek Market wharf – and while that exercise is going on – the relocation of at least some of the vendors who are now displaced.

By Valrie Grant, Managing Director GeoTechVision The United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) established the United Nations Committee of Experts on Global Geospatial Information Management (UN-GGIM) in July 2011 (ECOSOC resolution 2011/24) as the official UN consultative mechanism on Global Geospatial Information Management (GGIM).

By Marilyn Collins Marilyn Collins is a retired Director of the Government Food and Drug Analyst Derpartment   The Ministry of Public Health has placed emphasis on iron deficiency anaemia during this year’s observance of “Nutrition Awareness Week”.

The recently commissioned official enquiry into accidents in the mining regions in Guyana including mining pit cave-ins that result in loss of life is unlikely to serve any remedial purpose except the authorities are successful in enforcing rules and regulations that change key aspects of the operating culture in the mining sector, an experienced mining sector employee has told this paper.

General Secretary of the Guyana Trades Union Congress (GTUC) Lincoln Lewis has told the Stabroek Business that while labour is buoyed by the confirmation announced in Monday’s budget presentation that the Critchlow Labour College (CLC) will have its annual subvention which was removed under the previous political administration restored, it provides the College with a challenge to ensure that the subvention “converts into various forms of training for young people that can strengthen the pool of resources available to take the economy and the country forward.

Employees in both the public and private sector workplaces in Guyana continue to be victims of inhospitable working conditions and have their rights as workers transgressed on account of flagrant disregard for constitutional provisions and rules that have been created to protect them,” Minister in the Ministry of Social Protection Simona Broomes has told the Stabroek Business.

(Trinidad Express) The Atlantic coast of Tobago may be battling waves of sargassum seaweed, but the Caribbean side of the island is all rays of sunshine, clean sandy beaches and clear waters for visitors, claims Tobago’s Secretary of Tourism and Transportation Tracey Davidson-Celestine.

GASCI (www.gasci.com/telephone Nº 223-6175/6) reports that session 628’s trading results showed consideration of $1,830,101 from 31,637 shares traded in 14 transactions as compared to session 627’s trading results, which showed consideration of $6,012,888 from 82,274 shares traded in 8 transactions.

Thousands of miles may separate the metropolitan capitals where gold prices are set from the remote Amerindian communities in the interior of Guyana like Sebai, but the impact of decision-making in the metropolis on communities like Sebai could hardly be starker.

The Heavenly Foods Soul Vegetarian Restaurant is probably the first fully vegan eatery in Guyana.

With few employment alternatives now available, families in several interior communities including the township of Port Kaituma have little alternative but to continue to hitch their sails to the mast of a gold mining industry that continues to be affected by the plummeting price on the world market.

Last weekend’s capsizing of the Capt Saif reflects the perils of our waterways, a critical means of connecting coastal Guyana with huge swathes of the country’s interior.

By Valrie Grant, Managing Director GeoTechVision The Fifth Session of the United Nations Committee of Experts on Global Geospatial Information Manage-ment (UN-GGIM) ends today at the United Nations Headquarters in New York.

For about a week leading up to the annual Emancipation anniversary, before thousands of Guyanese, Brazilians and visitors from the Caribbean and the North American diaspora converge in the National Park to celebrate, the Main Street Avenue comes alive.

With countries like Guyana having promised much but delivered little in terms of public/private sector cooperation in pursuit of meaningful national development projects, a recent study on reforming the regional public sector produced by the Caribbean Policy Research Institute (CaPRI) is recommending restructuring regional public service reform that focuses on the outsourcing of what has been commonly regarded as traditional public service responsibilities to the private sector.

Junette Stuart is not simply starting out in the business of fashion design.