- says businessmen must be able to engage the media without fear or prejudice

The critical importance of the private sector to restoring the fortunes of the Guyana economy requires that there be greater, more involved interaction between the business community and the media, according to President of the Guyana Manufacturers and Services Association (GMSA) Ramesh Dookhoo.

President of GMSA Ramesh Dookhoo

“An enhanced relationship between the media and the private sector that allows for a better public understanding of business currents in the society ought to be one of the objectives of both media houses and the business community,” Dookhoo told Stabroek Business.

“I believe that there is a need for the creation of an environment in which the media and the business community can enjoy greater access to each other. This can serve to significantly enhance public understanding of the role of the private sector in the Guyana economy,” Dookhoo told Stabroek Business.

Noting that the role of the private sector was sufficiently important to allow for “a free and open encounter with the media,” Dookhoo said that while he was “by no means suggesting that media houses compromise themselves or their professionalism,” he felt that there needed to be an atmosphere of “greater mutual trust” between the media and the business community.

The GMA President said that his recognition of the importance of the relationship between the private sector and the media had been enhanced by his concern that some issues that have a critical bearing on private sector development and which ought to be in the public domain are probably still not properly understood by the Guyanese public.

“I believe, for example, that there is still not enough information out there about the National Competitiveness Council (NCC) and what it seeks to accomplish. We really ought to be making a much greater effort to help the public to understand what the NCC is all about and what it seeks to accomplish,” Dookhoo said.

Dookhoo told Stabroek Business that he believed private sector officials must be able to speak freely about how business is doing without fear or prejudice. “That is extremely important,” he added.

Asked to account for what he perceives to be a deficiency in the relationship between the media and the business sector, Dookhoo told Stabroek Business he believed that it was, perhaps, a question of trust. “I think it is true to say that generally, most of our business leaders are reserved about the press,” he said. “The press needs to work constantly at changing that. We should not be engaging the business community only when there is a problem. You should call them as well when nothing is happening, Maybe those moments also provide opportunity for hearing interesting things.”

And the GMSA President said that his organization was prepared to collaborate with the media and the Guyana Press Association in facilitating a forum at which there can be a constructive exchange between the private sector and the media regarding ways in which more emphasis can be placed on private sector activity. He said that such a forum should seek as an outcome the creation of an environment in which a freer flow of information on private sector activity to the public through the media can be realised.