Finding the will to move forward

These five commodities are sugar, rice, rum, molasses and shrimp. Over the period 2007 to 2016, rice and sugar have dominated our export earnings, contributing an average of 26.1 per cent. The largest contributor was rice, contributing an average of 15.6 per cent to export earnings, followed by sugar, contributing 10.5 per cent, shrimp contributing 5.8 per cent while rice and molasses contributed a combined average of 1.8 per cent as could be seen from Table 2 (see page 12). While these traditional manufacturing activities are important to the economy, there is the need to expand value added and export oriented manufacturing industries. The economic value-added generated in the economy by the manufacturing sector over the period in review averaged 5.4 per cent annually, increasing from an estimated $13.7 billion in 2007 to $22.2 billion in 2016. The value-added generated by this sector compared to other sectors is relatively small despite the hub of activity around manufacturing within the country.

Strategic vision

The potential for increasing the manufacturing sector is tremendous. Innovation in products and processes and better measurement of cost are critical to success. But, it is generally accepted too that energy costs must come down by leaps and bounds to enable the manufacturing sector to assert itself in the Guyana economy and further afield. In a recent presentation, it was suggested that the industrial electricity costs in Guyana were slightly cheaper than in some parts of the Caribbean Region.

That knowledge is of little comfort for the spatial development of the sector when inadequate infrastructure also impedes its progress and diminishes or even erases export market advantages. The lack of a well developed and efficient transport system also acts as a deterrent to the growth and competitiveness of the manufacturing sector. But the biggest challenge to the sector might be getting industry players to demonstrate strategic vision and the will to move forward.