Business

For all her unshakable focus on her academic pursuits, Queen’s College Sixth Form Student Sheridan Dyal is not indifferent to the entrepreneurial opportunities that are open to her even before her days of tying the knot on her QC tie finally come to an end.

In a matter of a handful of months the mood of local agro-processors shifted from the condition of disappointment associated with the official turning down of a request for a subsidy to help fund their participation in last October’s Florida Trade Expo to one that was more upbeat following the decision by government to assign what we are told was a significant subsidy to the attendance of Guyanese small businesses, mostly agro-processors, we understand, at the recently concluded Barbados Agro Fest. 

GASCI (www.gasci.com/telephone Nº 223-6175/6) reports that session 1008’s trading results showed consideration of $119,812,258 from 182,404 shares traded in 44 transactions as compared to session 1007’s trading results, which showed consideration of $121,539,541 from 328,525 shares traded in 50 transactions.

A senior Public Servant with knowledge of the procedures associated with the allocation of state contracts has been speaking with the Stabroek Business about what he says are the “possible pitfalls” in government simply awarding contracts for various types of state-funded public works as a means of what he described as efforts to create “ethnic balance” in the allocation of such state contracts.

With potential business owners ready to move from ‘flat footing hustles’ into substantive, structured small businesses, the state-run mechanisms that have supposedly been put in place to facilitate the transition, and which are presumed to be ‘fit for purpose’ organizations do not, in many instances, appear in practice, to ideally serve the purpose for which they were created.

The Caribbean has become the first area in the world to witness a regional launch of the UN’s Early Warnings for All initiative (EW4ALL).

Consistent with its responsibility to deliver a robust food security regime, both at home and as part of its commitment to the wider Carib-bean, the Government of Guyana is pouring “heavy investments (and) innovative techniques” into the bolstering of the country’s agricultural sector, according to a release issued by the Department of Public Information (DPI) earlier this week. 

Not even Guyana’s recent energy conference in Georgetown could diminish the significance of this month’s visit to Caracas by Trinidad and Tobago’s Energy Minister, Stuart Young, to engage Caracas in talks that could see Port of Spain and Caracas finally, jointly commence development of the Dragon gas field that reportedly could produce around 150 million cubic feet of gas, daily, a project, which, once it is successfully completed will transform both countries into global energy powerhouses.

(Reuters) – Trinidad and Tobago is inviting its energy-rich neighbors to process their oil and natural gas in the Caribbean country to produce commodities such as liquefied natural gas (LNG) or petrochemicals, hoping to utilize its spare capacity.

Still struggling to increase both its oil production and international oil sales amidst the pressures of what remains a punishing regime of United States sanctions, Venezuela’s oil and gas sector   continues to pursue a path of seeking every opportunity to monetize the drastically reduced amounts of oil that it recovers these days.

CARICOM Heads of Government will explore working with companies servicing the Caribbean to find a solution to the current transportation woes facing the Community.

The surfeit of opinion to the effect that as major oil-driven state-funded projects across the sectors increase, more aggressive and more costly surges of bribery, corruption and nepotism will assail the state system is not a concern which the Irfaan Ali administration should take lightly.

Back in April last year it had been announced that India, the world’s third largest consumer of oil, had engaged the Government of Guyana in pursuit of its interest in a long-term deal to acquire oil from Guyana.

Hopeful that the marketability of their products will be enhanced through their participation in next weekend’s Annual Agro Fest in Barbados, a group of thirty five (35) local manufacturers in the craft, agro processing, furniture and other sectors will, with the support of the Guyana Office for Investment (G-Invest) travel to Barbados for the country’s February 24-27 Agro Fest event.

The staging of Guyana’s second ever International Energy Conference has, like its predecessor, attracted a surfeit on international media exposure for the country that departs sharply from the accustomed fare of economic woes and political instability.

For much of the past week, scores of Guyanese agro-processors have been busying themselves seeking out the most cost-effective ways of travelling to Barbados to attend the sister CARICOM country’s February 24-26 Agro Fest, the closest they would have gotten in recent years to an opportunity to display their agro produce on a stage outside of Guyana.