With local entrepreneurs being courted by companies in Trinidad and Tobago to pursue opportunities in that country’s free zone, some local businessmen believe that there may be some merit in establishing such zones locally.
Free zones are designated places where businesses can operate without any taxes on their profits and free from tariffs on imports and exports. Trinidad and Tobago has such a system.
An advertisement placed in Sunday’s edition of the Chronicle was encouraging local business to pursue business opportunities in Trinidad and Tobago’s Free Zone. The free zone being advertised was the IBP Free Zone. The advertisement said “the Government of Trinidad and Tobago’s offers an opportunity for: companies involved in regional distribution of imported goods, manufacturers (assembly/repacking) for exports from Trinidad and companies wishing to export services such as information technology, call centres, logistics.
Incentives offered, the ad said, included exemptions from: “import duties”, “value added tax”, “corporation tax on profits”, “withholding tax on remittance of profits”, “work permit fee”,” any other tax or levy on sales”, “import and export licensing requirements” and “foreign currency or property restrictions”.
One senior businessman, who asked not to be named, said that a free zone in Guyana could work if a manufacturing plant is set up, which utilizes local raw materials to make value-added products which are exported. He identified sugar cane stalk and sugar as two raw materials which could be used to make marketable value-added products. The businessman, who has studied issues related to free zones significantly, suggested that the Mauritian free zone model would be best suited to Guyana. He said too that free zones offered the opportunity for business to be done without the usual red tape.
Chairman of the Private Sector Commission (PSC) Ramesh Dookhoo said the commission has been garnering information on free zones but has not yet made any public push for the establishment of such zones locally. He said that there would be a number of considerations that would have to be taken on board before free zones are introduced in Guyana.
Asked about Trinidad & Tobago businesses seeking to attract Guyanese entrepreneurs, Dookhoo said this should not be seen as a threat and is simply an avenue for local entrepreneurs to do more business.
According to the IBP website, the Trinidad and Tobago government provides “an incentive package under the Free Zone Act of 1988 to encourage companies both foreign and local to establish business earmarking the export trade in a controlled environment under the supervision of the Customs and Excise Department.”
An agency called the Trinidad and Tobago Free Zones Company Limited, which falls under the Ministry of Trade and Industry, was set up to manage these zones.
