Dear Editor,
I refer to your editorial in yesterday’s newspaper with headline ‘The Ministry of Business’ Strategic Plan’ and wish to offer a few comments on your analysis of this document.
Firstly, the Ministry of Business’ strategic plan is essentially the ministry’s work plan until the year 2020. It guides the ministry’s work and outlines the way the ministry sets about achieving its strategic objectives. The ministry fully understands and appreciates that its goals cannot be achieved without stakeholder collaboration and insight, and as such the strategic plan benefited from several consultations with the main private sector organizations, the UNDP and a number of other key stakeholders. These consultations began on August 20, 2015 and culminated on August 3, 2016. During that period, the input of these stakeholders was sought at every level of the drafting of the strategic plan. Drafts of this document were also released to the public for comments, which were reviewed and incorporated into the strategic plan where applicable.
The strategic plan makes clear that the ministry’s goals will be achieved through policy creation, advocacy and cooperation with the private sector. With this in mind, the plan proposes the establishment of a Business and Competitiveness Advisory Council (BCAC) which will be the vehicle for public-private dialogue. It is intended for this body to address matters of competitiveness of our economy as well as improving the business environment. Already, the ministry has been engaging the business support organisations concerning the establishment of this body.
With regard to the skills deficit, the ministry intends to actively address this by continually offering training to the current members of staff to bring them up to the required level of expertise in cases where that can be done. Where there is a national skills deficit, the strategic plan proposes that the ministry advocates through the Ministry of Education and University of Guyana for the requisite changes to the curriculum that will conform to the needs of our developing economy.
Finally, as it relates to Go-Invest, this agency has had its challenges but we believe that it is on the right trajectory with the appointment of a competent board and CEO. Go-Invest is presently working with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) through its National Investment/Export Promotion Strategy to remedy the absence of skills. One of the sub-strategies of the initiative deals specifically with the promotion of the value added industry.
The Ministry of Business through the implementation of its 2016-2020 Strategic Plan hopes to create a business environment that fosters innovation, competitiveness, growth and diverse employment opportunities by improving the ease of doing business, attracting sustainable investment, promoting value added exports and enhancing workforce skills through policy-making, advocacy and cooperation with the private sector.
The reason for making this document public was not only to share information but so that we could be held accountable by stakeholders for the achievement of the stated objectives.
Yours faithfully,
Neilson McKenzie (Jr)
Business Liaison Officer
Ministry of Business
