Business Editorial

The Small Business Bureau: A pragmatic perspective

The environment of aplomb in which the Small Business Bureau was launched at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre in October 2013 was always felt in some quarters to be a dead giveaway insofar as its likely success in bearing the weight of nurturing a robust small-business infrastructure was concerned.

The state has failed our micro and small businesses

The tremendous creativity, energy and willpower that have been invested in the creation of micro and small businesses in various sectors by many ordinary Guyanese determined not just to fight their way out of poverty, but also to make a mark as worthwhile businessmen and women, have not, over the years benefitted from a level of support from either government or the lending sector – or the private sector as a whole – that can be considered commensurate with either their effort or with their potential to enhance the viability of the country’s economy.

Politicians and mining madness in hinterland

The news earlier this week that a Brazilian miner was fined $12 million for allegedly committing several environmental transgressions in pursuit of his mining activities, including destroying a section of the Cuyuni River bank, would by now have gotten left behind amidst the various other issues that compete for public attention at this time.

A pact with China

According to a media release issued by the Ministry of Human Services & Social Security on Friday last, the Government of Guyana has set a timeline for the establishment of “several micro enterprise driven projects at the grassroots level… to coincide with the 50th Anniversary of diplomatic ties between Guyana and the People’s Republic of China in 2022,” from which it is hoped that “tangible results” will accrue.

Doubling down on tax dodgers to fix our broken education system

Perhaps surprisingly, the UN Secretary General’s Policy Brief titled “Education During COVID-19 and   Beyond” released at the beginning of August and which examines the challenge of restoring education systems, globally, and even seeking to render education delivery more robust, more efficient, in the post COVID-19 era, has not benefitted from a great deal of traction in the media here.

The Guyana Marketing Corporation – A case for autonomy

It is not too early, we believe, for the Stabroek Business to restate its position that there is everything to be gained from removing the Guyana Marketing Corporation (GMC) from within the ambit of the Ministry of Agriculture and allowing it to function as a semi-autonomous state entity under a management structure that is far more suitable to enhancing its role as an agency responsible for providing critical services to the private sector.

Our micro and small businesses are well worth saving

We continue to derive a great deal of satisfaction from our ongoing coverage of various small businesses in both the coastal and hinterland regions of Guyana that have been significantly affected by the onset of COVID-19 and some of which are even hesitant to come to concrete conclusions at this stage about the likelihood of their survival.

Opening encounter

The fact that last week’s first meeting between Presidents Ali and Santokhi has come this early in both their tenures is the best possible beginning for bilateral relations between Guyana and Suriname under two new political administrations.

Hinterland, coastal small businesses being strangled by official neglect

Our ongoing editorial focus on small businesses in agriculture, agro processing and on hinterland business ventures (gold being the notable exception here) is that we believe that setting aside its other pursuits the media have a responsibility to stand behind these enterprises at a time when the repercussions of COVID-19 threaten their survival and by extension, the welfare of the owners and their dependents.

Helping to salvage our stricken micro and small businesses

Our decision to lend an even higher level of editorial attention than we customarily do to micro and small businesses in the agriculture and agro-processing sectors has to do with the predicament that many businesses of these types find themselves in on account of the strictures that have arisen out of the COVID-19 pandemic.

COVID-19 and the survival of micro, small businesses

One of the more challenging assignments that will face the country once we begin in earnest to assess and seek to limit the extent of the damage that the coronavirus has inflicted on the business sector will have to do with creating some sort of blueprint for putting those various micro- and small businesses that have folded or faltered badly under the weight of the pandemic, back together again.

Political failure to address regional food security has to change

A recent assessment by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the global food security situation – some aspects of which are reported in this issue of the Stabroek Business – strongly suggests that at least up until now and in the wake of the advent of COVID-19,  global supplies are holding their own even though, worryingly, longer-term availability threats still revolve around high prices as well as challenges associated with getting supplies to those regions where life-threatening shortages exist.

New tensions in the hemisphere?

There can be no mistaking the reality that the Trump administration in the United States is ‘going for the jugular’ against the administration of President Nicholas Maduro in Venezuela.

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