Business

-GCCI President President of the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI) Chandradat Chintamani has told Stabroek Business that the Chamber would give serious consideration to the creation of a Credit Bureau to support the financing of small business development if government grants it the necessary permission.

Says further reduction will come before year end General Manager of the National Milling Company (NAMILCO) Bert Sukhai has told Stabroek Business that contrary to the impression created by the recent spat between the company and government over flour prices there has, in fact, been no increase in the price of the commodity since May this year.

Commerce Minister Manniram Prashad appears to be going a different route to the Prime Minister in seeking to bring the scourge of metal theft that is inextricably tied to the scrap industry under control.

Rawle Lucas is a Guyanese-born Certified Public Accountant and Assistant Vice President of the Lending Services Division.

Two senior officials of the Caribbean Citrus Growers Association (CCGA), a Trinidad and Tobago-based company, have been meeting with local officials and visiting areas of Tacama in the interior savannahs as the Association prepares to pump around US$25m into the creation of the largest ever citrus-growing operation in Guyana, CCGA President Felix Clarke told Stabroek Business that the  Association is awaiting the ‘green light’ from government over the acquisition of 5,000 acres of land in the Tacama savannahs for the citrus project.

The local remittance sector is bracing itself for what could be “a hard knock” arising out of the  unfolding crisis in the United States economy and the slowdown in the remittance rate to Guyana could begin to impact significantly in as little as two weeks time, according to President of the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce Chandradat Chintamani.

Presentation made by Dr Maurice Odle, Economic Adviser to the Secretary-General of CARICOM at a Staff Seminar on Thursday, 18 September 2008, at Turkeyen, East Coast Demerara.

GASCI (www.gasci.com/telephone Nº 223-6175/6) reports that session 271’s trading results showed consideration of $1,131,421 from 103,000 shares traded in 9 transactions as compared to session 270 which showed consideration of $8,576,098 from 320,404 shares traded in 13 transactions. 

Group eyeing opportunities in local petroleum, ethanol industries – CEO The Neal and Massy Group of Companies  has linked the expansion of its range of services in Guyana to the country’s “national growth horizons” and is geared to make interventions in key  areas of the country’s economic expansion programme, according to Group Chief Executive Officer Deo Persaud.

`The website initiative can be seen as the start of a process through which the Chamber is seeking to reinvent itself’ The Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI) is to launch a website before year end and Chamber President Chandradat Chintamani says that the new platform is “part of a broader range of services which the Chamber is seeking to provide for its members, the local business community as a whole and potential investors.”

Last week the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI) and the Guyana Bankers Association (GBA) organized a forum to discuss with the local business community the various services which commercial banks can provide that offer an alternative to cash transactions.

Real challenges to agricultural entrepreneurial initiative …Transportation and communication Historical episodes on commercial agricultural activity in the Upper Berbice River sub region, and the Intermediate Savannahs have endorsed the inherent difficulties of physical access and communication links.  

…if Chamber, Customs plan works The seasonal difficulties experienced by businesses seeking to expedite customs  clearance for goods during the Christmas season could be significantly reduced this year if recent discussions between the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI) and the Customs and Trade Administration (CTA) hold good.

Too little has been done up to this time to educate the business community and the country as a whole about the proposed Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with Europe and the various ways in which it will impact on the country,” according to President of the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI) President Chandradat Chintamani.

GASCI (www.gasci.com/telephone Nº 223-6175/6) reports that session 270’s trading results showed consideration of $8,576,098 from 320,404 shares traded in 13 transactions as compared to session 269 which showed consideration of $15,106,832 from 385,390 shares traded in 7 transactions. 

Says region’s economic diplomacy has lost its passion, commitment The acceptance by the region of the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with Europe in its present state is a reflection of a loss of the “passion, commitment and vision” which was so evident in Caribbean economic diplomacy during the decade of the seventies, according to former Commonwealth Secretary General Sir Shridath Ramphal.

We can if we get an international licence – Dean The continuing telecommunications monopoly by the Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company (GT&T) continues to limit the growth of DIGICEL in terms of the services that it seeks to place on the local market according to the company’s Chief Executive Officer Gregory Dean.

Andre Griffith Last week we examined the implications of intellectual property in general and those implications with respect to information technology in particular. 

By Rawle Lucas Rawle Lucas is a Guyanese-born Certified Public Accountant and Assistant Vice President of the Lending Services Division.