Business

The organizers of Guyana’s third annual Wedding Expo held at the Roraima Duke Lodge from March 25 – 27 are hailing the event as a “significant success” and “a national showpiece that has now become part of the country’s event calendar.”

A Guyanese-born building services engineer who has re-migrated after residing in the United Kingdom for 35 years is calling for the creation and implementation of “appropriate codes and standards” in local air conditioning and refrigeration technology to keep pace with the “new, more modern building phase” unfolding in Guyana.

Prime Minister Samuel Hinds is advocating the setting up of a mining bank in Guyana at a juncture when, he says, high gold prices and attendant high profit margins allow miners to place some of their earnings in shares in such an institution.

Work on the second 2000-ft phase of the runway at the Ogle International Airport is expected, weather permitting, to be completed by May this year and flights from Caribbean countries could be landing at Ogle by early next year, Chief Executive Officer of the Ogle International Airport Project Anthony Mekdeci told Stabroek Business.

Every so often we are treated to political pronouncements the particular titles of which vary from one presenter to another but all of which address one or another aspect of hinterland development.

Flood

By Karen Abrams The ease of doing business index ranks economies from 1 to 181, with first place being the best.

By Clinton Urling Last week I wrote about the high interest rate spreads, excess liquidity and the unduly expensive credit that private commercial banks offer to Guyana’s private sector businesses.

Official neglect of interior airstrips, many of which serve strategically important hinterland townships or are, in various ways, critical to Guyana’s economic growth, social progress and territorial security, has become a serious but little talked-about national issue.

The Brass, Aluminum and Cast Iron Foundry (BACIF) celebrates its 51st year of service to Guyana’s manufacturing sector with numerous absorbing stories to tell about its critical role in keeping the wheels of industry turning through difficult years and, in the process, making a largely unsung but vital contribution to Guyana’s economy.

GASCI (www.gasci.com/telephone Nº 223-6175/6) reports that session 399’s trading results showed consideration of $7,671,846 from 438,783 shares traded in 21 transactions as compared to session 398 which showed consideration of $6,327,661 from 140,489 shares traded in 8 transactions. 

Wonderland Tours says it will continue to pursue legal action over its expulsion from the Tourism and Hospitality Association of Guyana (THAG) over what the association’s President Paul Stephenson says are “reports made … by members of the private sector, the industry and by visitors to the destination” regarding “a recurring pattern of complaints” against the tour operators.

Caribbean Chemicals (Guyana) is currently celebrating its twentieth anniversary as a provider of a range of services and products to Guyana’s agricultural sector.

This column has already commented on the virtues of the initiative spearheaded by former Jamaican prime minister and Caricom elder statesman Percival J Patterson to put together a US$1billion fund to help regional service providers participate in the physical recon-struction of earthquake-ravaged Haiti.

The Business Cartoon

Favours As noted before, the service sector is a significant part of the Guyana economy and construction occupies a prominent portion of that sector. 

By Clinton Urling Guyana’s commercial banks are enjoying particularly strong success in the current economy with excellent bank liquidity positions and very substantial profit margins, a reality recently reinforced by Mr.

Failure by the Chinese bauxite company Bosai Minerals Group (BMG)  to install a dust collector at its Linden plant despite repeated promises to do so has to be attributed in part to the failure of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to “hold the company to its word,” a source close to the agency said.

Guyana still has a long road to travel in order to create a lucrative tourist industry and the key to that accom-plishment reposes in a significantly expanded inter-national marketing pro-gramme that centres around the country’s best-known attraction, the Kaieteur Falls.

Guyana’s youth must show independence, resilience, determination and entrepreneurial vigour By Karen Abrams In 2002, Guyana’s Bureau of Statistics released demographics that indicated that almost 30% of the population was under the age of 14-year-old.