Government, private sector standoff immature and embarrassing - Gouveia

and it’s embarrassing. We should not have to be using the media to beg the government and the private sector to sit down together. It is a question of having a sense of duty, a commitment to doing what’s best for Guyana.”

Gouveia said he believed the dismantling of the Competitive Council which was chaired by the President, was “a bad move” by the government.

He stated that the Competitiveness Strategy which had been funded by the Inter-American Development Bank had functioned as “a structured forum for interaction between private sector and government, at the highest levels. Dismantling this forum effectively closed off a mechanism that enabled structured dialogue between government and the private sector where the President himself chaired the Council.”

And insofar as the ongoing coldness between the public and private sectors are concerned Gouveia observed, “The nation can only hope that both sides will, agree, and quickly, to sit together, though I worry that we may well have grown too accustomed to gridlock as part of our socio-political process.”

Meanwhile, he said he was becoming concerned over what he described as “official threats” and “sound bites” by government which he said could both intimidate the private sector and impact on investor confidence.

He said he believed the discussion by Finance Minister Winston Jordan and Central Bank Governor Dr Gobin Ganga regarding the closure of the foreign currency retention accounts of local companies, in the wake of central bank suggestions of the hoarding of currency can easily be perceived as a threat and could well be “unhealthy” for the public/private sector relationship.

“I can tell you that pronouncements like that are likely to scare the private sector and could make it even more unlikely that the two sides will sit down in good faith together. Threats like that are bad for the relationship,” Gouveia concluded.