These days, there are unmistakable indications that Mahdia is busying itself preparing to embrace the township status that beckons. The persistence of gold mining as the community’s primary economic activity still bespeaks of a tradition that will probably never be completely uprooted. That being said, the physical transformations, from the upgraded water and electricity services and ongoing road improvement works to the creation of a new Chamber of Commerce, Mahdia appears, these days, in a hurry to embrace a business culture in which gold will have to make room to accommodate a broader mix of commercial pursuits.
David Adams, a past Chairman of the Mahdia Power and Light Company appears eager to play his more recent role as the President of the Mahdia Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Adams, along with the Chamber’s Executive Director Daniel Fraser appear, collectively, to be the driving force behind the process pressing the Chamber into service to create the envisaged new business culture.
The Chamber has a membership of around thirty-five business entities, mostly restaurants, boutiques, barber shops and general stores. Now that it has reached an agreement with the Ministry of Business under which it receives applications for business registration from across the Region Eight (Potaro/Siparuni), Adams is confident that that will enable an acceleration in the growth of the Chamber. Fraser, too, is confident that the Chamber could grow quickly. “We are hoping to create a level playing field for doing business,” he says.
