Business

Animatix Studios, a division of the Information Technology solutions company BrainStreet Group and the first commercial animation production facility in Guyana, held a product demonstration exercise for special invitees at the company’s Albert street headquarters on May 13.

In the wake of reports that Chinese company Bai Shan Lin has ignored successive cease-work orders issued by the Guyana Geology & Mines Commission (GGMC) and continued to remove laterite and sand from locations at Moblissa and Bamia, Chairman of the Private Sector Commission (PSC) Ron Webster has told Stabroek Business that it is important that both local and overseas businesses be required to abide by the same investment rules.

In the wake of the pullout of Delta Airlines from Guyana earlier this month, Stabroek Business has learnt that the government may shortly be dispatching a high-level delegation to the United States in an effort to secure a suitably prestigious replacement for Delta.

GASCI (www.gasci.com/telephone Nº 223-6175/6) reports that session 511’s trading results showed consideration of $3,381,050 from 89,770 shares traded in 13 transactions as compared to session 510 which showed consideration of $3,894,900 from 98,790 shares traded in 14 transactions. 

When this newspaper spoke with Chairman of the Private Sector Commission (PSC) Ronald Webster seeking an official private sector comment on the alleged recent transgressions of Chinese investor Bai Shan Lin, he told us he was not ideally positioned to pronounce on the issue, as he did not have any pertinent information at his disposal.

Business Cartoons

Hope Nester is what one might call a veteran vendor. For more than 25 years, she has been offering various types of goods and services – clothing, food, beverages, shoes, perfumes and, more recently, cellular phone ‘top-up’ services to customers.

Four years after the opening of the Water Street Vendors Arcade, the jury is still out on the impact which it has had on the lives and livelihoods of the stallholders who occupy the facility.

There appears to be a difference between the Government of Guyana and informed industry opinion regarding the number of jobs which call centres are contributing to the overall tally of jobs being provided for Guyanese in the country’s Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector.

The recent publication of the 2012 Report of the Institute of Private Enterprise Development (IPED) throws a further positive spotlight on a local small business sector which, in recent months, has already been illuminated by two important recent developments; first, there was the announcement by the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI) that it was opening a membership window to small businesses which, hitherto, could not become members of the Chamber.

Upbeat news In the space of two days, Guyanese got a series of upbeat news about the economy. 

The local gold-mining industry appears to have quickly come to terms with the sudden change in the direction of gold prices, which began with the biggest one-day decline in several years in mid-April, falling by US$140.30 or 9 per cent to US$1,361.

Jerry Bacchus, owner of the popular Jerries food outlets in Georgetown, says openly that the popular axiom about good help being hard to find applies as much to his enterprise as it does to any other.

Small and micro businesses across the country that have, over the years, grown used to operating in an informal, even illegal environment, neglecting to register as a business, failing to comply with the requisite safety and health regulations and evading taxes will have to agree to a much higher level of compliance if they are to benefit from the financial and other forms of support that will soon be on offer under the provisions of the 2004 Small Business Act.

By Kelly Mekdeci Participants in a survey of 400 US employers identified professionalism, work ethic, oral and written communications, teamwork and collaboration, critical thinking, and problem solving as the most important proficiencies for secondary school and university graduates to possess.

Enterprises benefiting from loans and other services provided by the Institute of Private Enterprise Development (IPED) last year provided employment for approximately 9,628 persons including the owners of those enterprises, according to the recently released report of the Board of Directors of the entity.

Not a Priority! While there has been an unending stream of official backing for the construction of a Marriott Hotel in Guyana a recent survey of business opinion undertaken by the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry placed the hotel almost at the bottom of what it felt ought to be on any list of national priorities.

A sharp difference of opinion has arisen between the heads of the local Private Sector Commission (PSC) and the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI) over the banning of the popular seawall ‘lime’.

Carolyn Paul is hoping that her venture into a major commercial enterprise with four Surinamese business partners can, in its own way, contribute to cementing relations between the two South American republics.