Business

Sufficient time has elapsed, we believe, for the new government to provide a clear policy picture in relation to the level of support that the local small business community can anticipate from it in terms of initiatives that can help to strengthen the sector if only on account of the substantial job-creation and poverty alleviation weight that it carries.

GASCI (www.gasci.com/telephone Nº 223-6175/6) reports that session 901’s trading results showed consideration of $13,605,378 from 76,114 shares traded in 38 transactions as compared to session 900’s trading results which showed consideration of $35,707,095 from 340,135 shares traded in 35 transactions.

No one with knowledge of the long-standing territorial controversy between Guyana and Venezuela is likely to be shocked over the recent seizure of two Guyanese fishing vessels by the Venezuelan Navy and the detention of their Guyanese crew in Guyana’s territorial waters late last month.

Prospects for an aggressive stepping up of the oil search in the Guyana/Suriname basin in a bid to further enhance the world-class oil discoveries made in that region in recent years now appear to loom large after the London-based multinational oil company, Tullow Oil, announced this week that it will be following what a February 1 Caribbean Business Report describes as “a year of relative inactivity” with the resumption of drilling activity in the basin in the region this year “in an area where it has already recorded one discovery of “high-quality crude offshore Guyana” with imminent commencement of “drilling of Goliathberg-Voltzberg North (GVN-1) exploration well in Block 47 in Suriname.”

The steady growth of the agro processing sub-sector from a modest and little-regarded pursuit used mostly to subsidize the incomes of poor families to what, in some instances, are, these days, significant investments in the manufacture of condiments from locally grown fruit and vegetables, is, arguably, one of the recent noteworthy successes in the agro-processing sector.

Latin America and the Caribbean have suffered what the UN World Economic Situation and Prospects Report (WESP) Report for 2021 has described as “an economic downturn of historic proportions” arising mostly out of the health crisis resulting from the onset of the novel coronavirus.

The January 2021 World Economic Outlook Report issued by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is projecting a 5.5% growth in the global economy this year, though its projection is underpinned by a distinct hedging of bets arising out of what is now believed to be fresh chameleon-like assaults from the global COVID-19 pandemic.

Eating fruits and vegetables (Third Instalment) Fruit and vegetables are a vital part of cuisines around the world.

Gold Prices for the three day period ending Thursday February 4, 2021 Kitco is a Canadian company that buys and sells precious metals such as gold, copper and silver.

GASCI (www.gasci.com/telephone Nº 223-6175/6) reports that session 900’s trading results showed consideration of $35,707,095 from 340,135 shares traded in 35 transactions as compared to session 899’s trading results which showed consideration of $72,180,515 from 870,482 shares traded in 33 transactions.

The prospects that could accrue to the local business sector arising out of the Local Content opportunities deriving from anticipated oil and gas-related foreign investor pursuits was one of the focal points of last Thursday’s address by Dr Ashni Singh at the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce’s 131st Awards Ceremony, unsurprisingly so, since Local Content and what it could mean for the fortunes of the Guyana business community has, for the most part, been uppermost on the agenda of our Business Support Organisations (BSOs).

With the Trump administration now having passed noisily into history, US oil companies appear to be wasting no time in seeking to persuade the administration of the country’s new President, Joe Biden, to roll back the crippling sanctions which have placed harsh restrictions on Venezuela’s oil exports and damaged the sector as a whole to a point where repair could take a time span that is difficult to determine.

Ordinary Guyanese as well as the country’s business community will be keen to see the outcomes of the US$12.7 million agreement between the governments of Guyana and India signed earlier this month for the design, construction, and supply of an ocean-going passenger and cargo vessel for the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) member country.

Not even the reality of a global pandemic that poses an equal threat to rich and poor has been able to banish the spectre of the weighted privilege linked to the rich/poor divide among nations.

Research into a tea culture said to have had its origins somewhere in the region of 2727 BC locates the practice in the traditions of the older civilizations of China, India, and Japan, prior to its more recent association with the Drawing Rooms of the European middle and upper classes.

Eco Solutions is one of the hundreds of manifestations of the considerable creative imagination of Guyanese women, reflected mostly in the agro-processing, craft, and furniture design sectors in Guyana.

The United Nations Food & Agriculture Organization (UNFAO) having declared 2021 International Year of Fruits and Vegetables (IYFV), it is expected that Guyana will play a lead role, not just locally, but at the level of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) in ensuring that IYFV results in, among other things, an enhanced appreciation at the level of member countries of CARICOM of the importance of fruits and vegetables to the diet of their respective populations as well as, here in Guyana, a maximising of the local and overseas market opportunities that can be derived from fruit and vegetables sub-sectors of the agricultural sector.

Exxon Mobil is among the big players in the global oil and gas exploration and recovery industry that significantly slowed down their respective searches for oil and gas in 2020, as the onset of the novel coronavirus impacted energy prices, triggering sharp cuts in spending by the major oil companies.