Business

Such doubts as may exist regarding Guyana having arrived in ‘big league’ insofar as future global oil recovery projections are concerned are continually being dispelled by highly respected world-class analysts in the industry who see the country’s vast reserves becoming, increasingly, to focus of high profile recovery pursuits in the period ahead.

Last week’s confirmation that ExxonMobil’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Darren Woods will travel to Guyana to attend next month’s International Energy Conference and EXPO Guyana 2022 places the country in the international oil and gas spotlight in a manner that comes close to equalling the international response to the May 2015 announcement by the global energy powerhouse that it had accessed several   billions of barrels of recoverable oil in the Stabroek Block, offshore Guyana.

It may interest both the farming community here as well as the Government of Guyana to know that Jamaica, a sister CARICOM country with infinitely less physical resources with which to develop a successful agricultural sector continues, through its probe of market intelligence on global agriculture to find and exploit openings on the international fruit and vegetable market which we in Guyana appear unable to access and exploit.

A US$1.4 million Parboiled Rice Factory is among the recent investments undertaken by one of the country’s leading rice millers.

Evidence of the ever growing food security challenges facing countries in the Caribbean has become even more apparent with the onset of the coronavirus pandemic and its impact on jobs coupled with the closure of a number of micro and small businesses and the impact of this on a significant number of family incomes.

One might have taught that one of the consequences of the novel coronavirus and its fallout was that it might have rung alarm bells across the region, galvanizing Caribbean Community (CARICOM) member countries into actions designed to lessen the impact of ensuing rising food prices.

Beginning last August the Agriculture Department of the St. Ignatius Village Council has been facilitating a Farmers’ Market for Farmers drawn from Central Rupununi, including the villages of – Quarrie, Moco Moco, Kumu, Hiawa, Parishara and St Ignatius, among others.

Aspiring Guyanese businesswomen seeking to enter into the world of entrepreneurship, particularly those at the lowest end   of the spectrum, are not alone in the barriers and prejudices that they face in a global business environment in which there still exists an overwhelming perception of women as being deficient in their ability to match their male counterparts in pursuit of business success.

Kitco Market Data Gold Prices for the three day period ending Thursday January 13, 2022

GASCI (www.gasci.com/telephone Nº 223-6175/6) reports that session 949’s trading results showed consideration of $3,986,403 from 15,782 shares traded in 13 transactions as compared to session 948’s trading results which showed consideration of $4,388,511 from 19,232 shares traded in 5 transactions.

It is by no means the most uplifting of pursuits to zero in on every seemingly well-intentioned initiative undertaken by government and to shovel criticisms at those without seeking, first, to probe their virtues without passing verdict, one way or another.

So accustomed have Guyanese become to continual disclosures by ExxonMobil of successive ‘world class’ oil discoveries in the Guyana/Suriname Basin that this week’s disclosure by the largest US oil producer on Wednesday January 5, that it had made two further oil discoveries in the Stabroek Block, off Guyana’s coast, an area described as one of the company’s “top bets” for production growth in the decade ahead, evoked no notable response amongst the Guyanese public as a whole.

The name Manari is associated with one of Guyana’s best-known cattle ranches in Guyana.

With Guyana currently bathed in the spotlight created by the onset of oil production and the impact that this has had on investor interest in the country, neighbouring Suriname would appear to be chomping at the bit, awaiting its turn to be bathed in the glare of its own oil wealth.

As United States pressure mounts on the Maduro administration, Venezuela is investing more in relations with Iran in what is likely to be seen by Washington as a signal that the administration in Caracas will be seeking in the new year to protect itself from further US economic pressures.

One indicator of the extent to which Guyana is increasingly becoming a ‘destination of choice’ amongst assorted travellers, particularly potential investors, is the frequency with which, these days, an assortment of air travel service providers are seeking to engage the authorities here on extending their services into the local market.

Even more daunting survival-related challenges than presently obtain are likely to lie ahead for countries that are now battling with food security if the alarming picture of a continual loss of scarce resources, painted in a recently released Report by the United Nations Food & Agriculture Organization (FAO) persists.

India, with an estimated oil consumption level of an estimated 4,480,000 barrels per day ranks third behind the United States and China and is among the elite insofar as national oil consumption is concerned.

Four decades ago, in the wake of the drying up of wheaten flour imports into Guyana, a function of our foreign exchange travails and amidst a surfeit of political uproar and public grumbling, a government-invoked ‘buy local’ mantra spawned an outbreak of ‘inventiveness’ that spawned a new cooking culture that gave rise to the pursuits of a new culinary culture resulting in the emergence of a host of substitute ‘flours,’ two of the best-known of which were breadfruit ‘flour’ and rice ‘flour.’