The unchanging dilemma of an uncompetitive local manufacturing sector continues to be manifested in the persistence of high electricity costs coupled with a notoriously unreliable power supply system and high costs of imported raw material inputs, among other things, Former President of the Guyana Manufacturing & Services Association (GMSA) Ramsay Ali who is also Chief Executive Officer of Sterling Products Ltd. has told Stabroek Business.
“The manufacturing sector in Guyana is at a standstill. Who are here continue to do what they are doing, there is no excitement or no new development taking place at the moment,” Ali declared.
Ali told Stabroek Business that the local manufacturing sector is hard-pressed to compete with its regional counterparts given particularly the disparities in electricity rates. According to the GMSA member, reliable comparisons point to instances of disparities in electricity costs that are two to three times in favour of other Caribbean territories. Ali said that the gap in terms of competitive advantage widens even further when account is taken of “the quality of power” with Guyana, after decades, still prone to power shutdowns, both planned and unplanned. “If we have power cuts two and three times per day it affects production,” Ali told Stabroek Business, adding that his own company, Sterling Products, was forced to remove itself from the national grid in order to benefit from a reliable power supply.
