Every country seeks to preserve its own business community

Dear Editor,

It often amazes me what passes for news in Guyana. The Stabroek News somehow saw it fit to highlight the Trinidad and Tobago company Ansa McAl’s unsuccessful bid to become prequalified to supply medical drugs to the government health sector.

Not surprisingly, immediately following that, the Kaieteur News picked it up and ran their own story about Ansa McAl being peeved.

It is a known fact that every government in every country in the world seeks to protect its own local business community. It will therefore even pass laws to protect local investment as a whole. Further, every government will first look for local contractors or suppliers, whether they are for products or services, to award contracts to.

Indeed, Guyana and any country should welcome overseas investment, but such companies will have to at least make the necessary investments within Guyana and employ Guyanese nationals.

So why would a Trinidad company event want to bid to supply drugs in Guyana and supply them from Trinidad? Can a Guyanese company do likewise in Trinidad? I think not. In fact, for a Guyanese company to supply pharmaceuticals in Trinidad is impossible. It’s the same in Barbados and every other Caricom nation.

I recall not too long ago the Trinidad Prime Minister insisting, when her country was about to give funds for hurricane relief to two countries, that the contractors should be Trinidadians. She maintained her stance even when challenged, and that was a time of disaster for the two countries. Did the American government hire contractors from anywhere else but the US when they were ‘rebuilding’ Iraq after the war? And this, like the Trinidad case, involved work being done in the country which was benefiting from the assistance.

So at one time certain media houses are opposed to Chinese workers in Guyana, claiming that every effort should be made to employ the local workforce. Now the government has identified a local company which actually meets the stated criteria for a prequalification process. And there’s still a problem, at least with some media houses.

The Guyana Government should reconsider opening up the spending of taxpayers’ money to foreign companies. And as a Guyanese, I see no reason why a Trinidad company should be peeved at not having won a local bidding prequalification process.

 

Yours faithfully,
Annalisa Ally