President of the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI) Nicholas Boyer has told the Stabroek Business that while he is excited that the Caribbean region sees Guyana as a growing market for products manufactured in the region he also wishes to see the country being regarded as a market in which a stronger regional manufacturing capability can be created.
In an interview with this newspaper on Thursday, Boyer, who assumed the elected leadership of the Chamber in March, declined to comment on the response by local coffee producer, Louis Holder, to the announcement that the Trinidad and Tobago distributor ANSA McAl was importing 50 new foreign manufactured products into Guyana though he said that the Chamber would continue to be a strong advocate for the promotion of locally manufactured goods in regional markets. In its March 12 issue the Stabroek Business reported on Holder’s views regarding what he felt was the unevenness of the playing field insofar as access to locally produced goods in regional markets was concerned.
Meanwhile, in a wide-ranging interview, the first since his elevation to the presidency of the Chamber, Boyer told Stabroek Business that the imminent emergence of an oil and gas sector in Guyana and its overwhelming significance for the Guyana economy demands that the local Business Support Organizations (BSO’s) ‘shift gears,’ assuming at least some of the responsibility for helping the business community navigate what will be, in effect, unchartered waters. Readying the Chamber for that responsibility is one of the foremost priorities on his agenda, Boyer added.
