Business Editorial

Time and again in recent years the point has been made publicly that the significant increase in the construction of large buildings in various parts of the country ought to be more than sufficient cause for us to shine a more prominent spotlight on the issue of safety and health in the building sector.

In a recent interview with this publication, Guyanese-born academic and security specialist Dr Ivelaw Griffith spoke at length on regional security issues, including those which he considered to be the key threats to the safety of the Caribbean and ways in which the region might act collectively to help reduce its vulnerabilities in this sector.

The gold mining industry is not what it used to be two decades ago.

As best as we can tell there is really no good reason why the provisions of the Small Business Act cannot be fully and effectively implemented at an early date in the new year.

As evidence of the approaching Christmas holidays becomes more apparent, the signs of increased commercial activity manifest themselves in a heightened appetite for the profligate disposal of garbage in the commercial capital.

This newspaper has commented previously on the urban building boom – particularly as it relates to the growth of commerce in the city – and its implications for exercising an enhanced level of vigilance as far as issues of safety and health are concerned.

There was something ironic about the late night/early morning deluge that brought business in Georgetown to a near crippling halt on Wednesday.

While the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry is to be commended for the unfailing focus on fire prevention in its promotional and public relations initiatives that target mostly the urban business community, one wonders just how much impact its efforts are having and, indeed, whether those efforts are attracting the attention of what one might call critical audiences.

This newspaper has grown accustomed to revelations contained in the Reports of the Auditor General, some, indeed many of which set out with considerable clarity the cavalier manner in which public funds are spent and the absence of accountability that attends the process.

The Government of Guyana has signed on to a complex agreement with the Government of Norway under which Guyana is to receive from Norway significant sums of money, in fact, tens of millions of US dollars, based on verifiable evidence of Guyana’s  preservation of its rainforests.

After many weeks of silence on the land-for-farming deal between Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago, crystallized in a Memorandum of Understanding earlier this year, Agriculture Minister Dr Leslie Ramsammy still appears disinclined to make the details public.

As part of its 50th anniversary celebrations the Guyana Manufacturing and Services Association (GMSA) published a relatively brief but insightful assessment of the condition of the manufacturing sector which dealt in large measure with some of the critical impediments to its growth; also included were the GMSA’s views on how the challenges facing the sector can be addressed.

In the same interview during which she told us she believed Caribbean governments were displaying evidence of a greater sense of urgency as far as the food security of the region is concerned, Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) Resident Representative Dr Lystra Fletcher-Paul conceded that the pace of change was, perhaps, not matching the urgency of the situation.

For all the vigorous and, frankly, fanciful and far-fetched efforts of the Guyana Tourism Authority (GTA) to sell GuyExpo XV as a flawless success, it is patently obvious that nothing can be further from the truth.

Much of what Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI) President Clinton Urling had to say last weekend in his address at a Chamber dinner held to mark the launch of its 2013 Business Directory had to do with crime, its impact on the business community and what could or should be done to address the problem.

There can now be no doubt that the realization of the Guyana/Trinidad and Tobago land-for farming deal reached a few weeks ago by the two governments may well be in some measure of doubt.

Much has already been said in recent days, both here and in Trinidad and Tobago, about the agreement struck between the two governments on the allocation of large tracts of land here for the pursuit of farming ventures by Trinidadian investors.

The length of time that it took to conclude the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago (T&T) setting out the parameters for an initiative designed to enhance T&T food security can perhaps be excused on the grounds that the MOU had to do with making large tracts of local land available to the government of the twin-island Republic.

This year’s GuyExpo which takes place from October 3 to 6 will likely attract the customary throngs of visitors to the Sophia Exhibition Site, most of whom will expect to be provided with some measure of entertainment.

A day is much too brief a period in which to undertake any substantive discussions and sign on to any new, significant agreements so that, in large measure, tomorrow’s  one-day visit here by Venezuelan President Nicholas Maduro simply follows a symbolic pattern between the two countries in which the respective Heads of State put in a presence in each other’s capitals.