Business

The new Guyana Marketing Corporation has agreed to provide us with the above information which we will publish on a weekly basis subject to receipt.

According to a media release issued by the Ministry of Human Services & Social Security on Friday last, the Government of Guyana has set a timeline for the establishment of “several micro enterprise driven projects at the grassroots level… to coincide with the 50th Anniversary of diplomatic ties between Guyana and the People’s Republic of China in 2022,” from which it is hoped that “tangible results” will accrue.

In a move the could effectively test the will of governments in poor countries to meaningfully re-direct billions of dollars lost to developmental pursuits on account of the profligacy of tax evasion, the United Nations is urging a clampdown on ‘tax dodgers’ as a means of garnering finances to help rebuild education systems in poor countries seriously afflicted by COVID-19.

Guyana is among several countries, member states of the Caribbean Export Development Agency that can access a newly developed Direct Supports Grant facility launched by the Agency in collaboration with the European Union (EU) that will enable business enterprises CARIFORUM member countries to access funding that will help them respond to the impact of the pandemic on their businesses.

Having undertaken an assessment of the tentative re-opening on June 15 of the country’s tourism industry, which had been hastily closed in the wake of the rampaging COVID-19 pandemic, Jamaica’s Minister of Tourism Edmund Bartlett is doubtless far from happy with the picture that has unfolded before him.

With women across the world having become increasingly mindful of what the experts say are the negative effects on their overall health resulting from the use of chemical-based body and hair treatments, local girl Sherl Daniels believes that she is ‘on to something’ with her pursuit of what are known in the beauty industry as ‘natural products’ which she produces under the trading name Sherlcomestics Industry.

                                       Kitco Market Data Gold Prices for the three day period ending Thursday September 3, 2020

*Prices only represent the average Wholesale Farmgate and Retail Prices at the above mentioned markets and are NOT prices set by the Guyana Marketing Corporation or Ministry of Agriculture.

Perhaps surprisingly, the UN Secretary General’s Policy Brief titled “Education During COVID-19 and   Beyond” released at the beginning of August and which examines the challenge of restoring education systems, globally, and even seeking to render education delivery more robust, more efficient, in the post COVID-19 era, has not benefitted from a great deal of traction in the media here.

GASCI (www.gasci.com/telephone Nº 223-6175/6) reports that session 878’s trading results showed consideration of $39,746,085 from 119,446 shares traded in 12 transactions as compared to session 877’s trading results which showed consideration of $17,182,518 from 189,394 shares traded in 13 transactions.

A post-Covid-19 Guyana business community is likely to find itself significantly denuded of many of those micro and small business enterprises which, prior to the outbreak of the virus, had added a new and enterprising dimension to the overall business sector whilst contributing significantly to job-creation and enhancing individual and family incomes.

Not even the untimely advent of COVID-19 has altered external perception of Guyana as currently the choice Caribbean destination in which to do business, the tantrums of the virus having failed to extinguish the prevailing high hopes for the growth of the country’s economy on the back an emerging oil industry.

Our efforts to track the fortunes of micro and small businesses in the COVID-19 environment between May and August have led us to the discovery that small businesses run by women and young business persons are being hit hardest by the fallout from the pandemic.

If ever there remained any lingering doubts about the tourism-dependent nature of the global economy those were, this week, completely erased by the stunning revelation from United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres that the coronavirus pandemic had cost the global industry a staggering US$320 billion in exports between January and May this year and continues to put in excess of 120 million jobs at prolonged risk.

Can local micro, small businesses survive the covid-19 onslaught The overwhelming majority of our reportage since March this year has focused on the advent of the coronavirus and the ways in which it has impacted on business as a whole in Guyana.

It is not too early, we believe, for the Stabroek Business to restate its position that there is everything to be gained from removing the Guyana Marketing Corporation (GMC) from within the ambit of the Ministry of Agriculture and allowing it to function as a semi-autonomous state entity under a management structure that is far more suitable to enhancing its role as an agency responsible for providing critical services to the private sector.

GASCI (www.gasci.com/telephone Nº 223-6175/6) reports that session 877’s trading results showed consideration of $17,182,518 from 189,394 shares traded in 13 transactions as compared to session 876’s trading results which showed consideration of $11,902,369 from 109,663 shares traded in 27 transactions.