By Peter R. Ramsaroop, MBA
Introduction:
Businesses today are more complex than ever. Many different issues and challenges face employees and business owners alike – from catastrophic natural events, to globalization, to the impacts of global terrorism. These challenges often overwhelm the individual and the company looking to compete for a piece of the pie. In Guyana, we continue to struggle to adapt in the face of complexity and often it seems that we are more interested in the struggle than in working together to build what I think as our today much less our future. This last week I suggested to the Chairman of the Private Sector Commission that an Economic Council be established with public and private sector participation to guide the government on business and economic issues. GuyExpo is an event that just ended, but the real issues on taxation, government bureaucracy and corruption are still to be dealt with in order for the private sector to create growth.
Technology:
I’ve worked to build technology solutions for companies and governments around the world. Technology has in many ways proven to be the great equalizer among nations and economies yet we still have not harnessed its capabilities in our land. While one can readily check and send email at numerous cafes around Guyana, the potential of technology reaches much farther than email – consider the web-enabled marketplace for agricultural commodities or a records management solution that could assist our ailing property registry system? It is not about drainage alone, we should also be concentrating on improving technology in the field of agriculture. We have to concentrate on using technology to enhance our production, manage our inventories and communicate with the distributors and buyers.
In every economy, the core technology becomes the basis for revitalisation and growth. Information technologies are the core for today’s economy, and to survive all businesses must informationalize or create knowledge assets. From small family stores to larger corporations, the point is to grasp that all economic activities will depend on information and knowledge to create and control value.
Economic Solution versus Political:
Technical solutions work better when people work together. Over the last ten years I’ve noted that it seems we Guyanese prefer the political system to achieve economic ends rather than build economic interests that succeed on their own merit. The destructive nature of this tendency is in my view not rooted in our culture but rather is a result of the misuse of the political system. Guyanese of all races succeed in free markets from Europe to North America, yet at home the working masses are continually frustrated in their pursuit of prosperity. I attended the opening session of the public service congress and was shocked at Dr Roger Luncheon’s speech. The Head of the Presidential Secretariat lectured that public servants are better off than they were in 1992. A few of the elite public servants may be better off especially those in ministerial positions, but the average public servant makes $28,000 (US$140) take home per month. How can they feed their families?
Free markets:
We believe in free markets and the power of the market to affect change for the good of all our countrymen. Yet very little evidence of free markets exists in our land. From the lack of an encouraging investment code, to the immaturity of our own financial institutions, to the heavily interventionist hand of the public sector, the private sector is often the poor stepchild of our social system. The nature of a government-driven economy often results in political and economic divisiveness based on race or ethnicity, or in some cases religious discrimination. Of course we understand that sensible regulations are important to minimize the negative impacts of the drive for personal benefits (greed) which drives the capitalist system. Michael Moore’s Capitalism: A Love Story makes this point very well.
Suggestions:
How can we connect to the today much less the future? It has been fascinating to me that acquiring land is such a difficult process in our nation, except for the PPP. Perhaps we can start by creating our own land rush through a public process to encourage property ownership to the broadest possible cross-section of Guyanese and then allow an open property market to allow individuals to actively buy and sell their parcels? A “land for youth” programme with a national civil service programme where our young people can learn a trade must be implemented.
Perhaps we also can create opportunity through reduction on export duties on key products and tariffs on imports that place many of our businesses at a competitive disadvantage. These changes would mean a significant “power to the people” shift that is in accord with the march of freedom we’re witnessing even in the most intractable trouble spots of our global community.
Conclusion:
We’re at a crucial time in our history in Guyana. Much can be done now to build our today and our future where we work together to create that positive-sum market economy. We must create a new image of our nation to make it an attractive destination for foreign capital and demonstrating to an international audience the opportunities available for investment. Our public and private sector leaders must seek to define how global political and economic trends affect development, government, finance, the people versus dictatorship and corruption, must now work together to enable the earliest possible change in government so that we can all work to unleash the prosperity of investment and trade in our nation.
Until next time “Roop”
Send your comments and suggestions to peter.ramsaroop@gmail.com
