The Private Sector Commission (PSC) in a statement yesterday said that its Council Meeting on Monday called for further reform of the telecommunications sector to push economic growth.

It was the PSC’s view that in order to realize this potential, significant reform of the sector is “imperative to accelerate the introduction of competition that will improve quality of service, reduce costs and drive job creation and economic growth in ICT-enabled services.”

According to the statement, “The Council recognized the substantial work that has been done by GT&T to expand the facilities and improve the quality of telecommunications in Guyana over the many years.”

In addition, the Council also recognized that the National Competitiveness Strategy had identified Information and Communications Technology as a key growth opportunity for Guyana, while the country possesses many competitive advantages such as an English-speaking population, a literate and trainable work force, relatively low labour costs, and a location in the same time zone as the east coast of North America.

The Council noted as well that the government has committed to reform the sector as set out in the ICT4D strategy on page 33 and GT&T has made public commitments to work with the government to arrive at a resolution of the telecoms monopoly.

“The PSC supports the work by both parties to rapidly advance this matter to conclusion in accordance with international norms, and calls on members of the National Assembly to support this process,” the statement added.