-PM tells opening of agro processor
Guyanese Flavour UNCAPPED, an agro processers’ exhibition and food festival, opened last evening at the Sophia Exhibition Centre, where calls were made for a greater partnership between the state and the private sector in light of fears that a climate of “political instability” will affect business.
The expo, hosted by the Guyana Manufacturers and Services Association (GMSA) in collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture, brings together agro processors from across the country to allow the showcase of produce, facilitate networking and information sharing, and encourage business, President of the GMSA Shyam Nokta explained last evening.
In Nokta’s address, he related that the private sector is “committed to doing more” but said that an enabling environment is needed. He had begun his presentation by outlining the limitations within the local agro processing sector, naming access to finance, energy, and transportation and technology as barriers.
Nokta went on to suggest possible fixes for promoting growth and efficiency within the sector, among those being a proposal for the establishment of an agro processing facility, which he said would encourage stable supply and improve the economic standing of farmers; the development of an enabling framework to improve investments, which would provide, among other things, measures to reduce tax burdens and offer incentives; working to remove tariffs and providing greater shares of public procurement to local manufactured items that meet quality and standard requirements.
“While these interventions will certainly help to create an enabling environment for investment, they can only succeed if there is political stability. Within the last week, there has been a rise in the political temperature, at a time perhaps when our economy is showing signs of slowing down. The GMSA is concerned about the impact this political uncertainty and fallout can have on our businesses and the wider economy. It does not send the right signals to the private sector and investors both local and foreign,” Nokta said.
Fears
In the Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo’s feature address, he would address Nokta’s statement, first by committing to circulate a copy of his presentation at the next sitting of cabinet.
“I believe that we need much more of these ideas that could tell politicians in government that we do not have a monopoly on ideas, we don’t have a monopoly on views, neither do we have a monopoly on the approaches that could be taken at any particular time to change the direction in which we are going, or to improve the content of the approach,” Nagamootoo sta ed.
He would, however, go o to defend the role the govern ment has played in support o the private sector and its se vices, opining that what Nok said gives an impression o instability, a view which h said he does not share.
“I do not share this conclu sion, but I share his fears. To much of confrontational pol tics can affect the stability o our country, but this is a stab democracy, this is a stron democracy, this is a viable pa liamentary, multi-part democracy, this is a democr cy that boasts of a free an plural media that is kickin and alive and an independen judiciary and an executive th does not interfere with th other branches of the state… Nagamootoo said.
He further stated that “poli ical fallouts do not necessaril mean instability”, an acknowledged that claimin such is bad for the busine climate.
Meanwhile, Minister o Business Dominic Gaski noted that there are stron political divisions in man countries across the world bu their economies are still grow ing and investments are sti pushing up financial market “But somehow in Guyan every time there’s some polit cal fallout, it becomes okay t attack our economy. The pr