Business

It is not just the future of the rice industry that preoccupies significant numbers of residents of the Essequibo Coast but what the decline of the sector is likely to mean to communities which, in large measure, have never really contemplated any comparable options.

Chronic quantitative and qualitative weaknesses affecting the performance of the National Procurement and Tender Administration (NPTA) system and which are yet to secure the attention of the political administration are likely to continue to seriously affect the efficiency of the tender process.

Julius Simon holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science from the University of Guyana and is the Technical Director and Lead Developer at Innovative Systems Inc.

Unquestionably, it is a matter of trust. City Hall and particularly Town Clerk Royston King says that the proposed temporary location of the forty or so vendors plying their trade in both Robb Street and Bourda Street in proximity to the long-abandoned Bedford Methodist School has to do with the Council’s desire to have the structure torn down on the grounds that it has become unsafe for the vendors.

(Jamaica Gleaner) The University of the West Indies is to sign an agreement with China Harbour Engineering Company (CHEC) that is expected to lead to a J$40-billion deal for a redevelopment plan that will double the hospital capacity and introduce a hotel to the Mona campus.

Stock market updates    GASCI (www.gasci.com/telephone Nº 223-6175/6) reports that session 630’s trading results showed consideration of $1,546,020 from 15,818 shares traded in 7 transactions as compared to session 629’s trading results, which showed consideration of $4,409,880 from 66,008 shares traded in 11 transactions.

(Prepared by the Guyana Marketing Corporation and published by Stabroek Business as a public service)            *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.

Part of Natasha Daly’s mission is to seek to persuade the private sector as a whole to pay more attention to social causes that enhance the quality of the Guyanese society and by extension create an enabling environment in which business can better thrive.

(Trinidad Guardian) Professor Clement Sankat, pro-vice chancellor and campus principal at the University of the West Indies (UWI), St Augustine, said the newly opened Centre for Workforce Research and Development (CWRD) will be critically important in a time of stalled economic growth, high youth unemployment and increasing competition within the Caribbean.

Even as the government announced a limited package of measures in last week Monday’s budget presentation aimed at bringing a measure of relief to a gold-mining sector struggling under the weight of continually falling prices on the global market, the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI) has said that it is unsure as to whether the measures announced in the budget will relieve the strain on the sector.

Currently in its 65th year of operation, the highly diversified Affiance-based enterprise Imam Bacchus & Sons is one of the best-known businesses on the Essequibo Coast and when Stabroek Business visited the Cinderella County last week, we thought it would be useful to engage the proprietors in our quest to ‘test’ the temperature of the Essequibo economy.

By: Valrie Grant, Managing Director, GeoTechVision Over the past two weeks, this column has focused on United Nations Global Geospatial Information Management (UN-GGIM).

(Trinidad Guardian) Between TT$19 million and TT$33 million were being siphoned off annually from the Government’s Food Card Programme, Minister of the People and Social Development Christine Newallo-Hosein admitted on Wednesday. She

A senior official in the local Ministry of Agriculture has gone on the attack against non-tariff barriers instituted by some Caribbean Community (CARICOM) countries that are working counter to efforts to realise regional food security, according to Monday’s edition of the Jamaica Gleaner.

A local company has been selected by the World Bank group InfoDev as a ”business enabler” to provide training and mentorship for Guyanese entrepreneurs and start-ups under a tailored package of instructions being offered by the World Bank’s Accelerate Caribbean Programme.

At 60, Sam Barakat has ‘been around the block’ as far as business is concerned.

(Trinidad Guardian) The Energy Chamber of T&T is calling on the country to “plan accordingly” as oil prices continue to tumble.

GASCI (www.gasci.com/telephone Nº 223-6175/6) reports that session 629’s trading results showed consideration of $4,409,880 from 66,008 shares traded in 11 transactions as compared to session 628’s trading results, which showed consideration of $1,830,101 from 31,637 shares traded in 14 transactions.

The announcement by Finance Minister Winston Jordan in his budget presentation that government intends to activate a provision of the Small Business Act of 2004 that allows for medium and small enterprises to access up to 20 percent of government contracts will be music to the ears of those smaller goods and service providers who have been complaining for years about being locked out of access to contracts for services to the state even in circumstances where they say they are capable of providing those services.

Inevitably, the transformation that has all but completely altered the face of the old Georgetown has made its presence felt on Brickdam, one of the few streets where huge, shady trees and colonial-style wooden buildings used to dominate the quiet stretch that extended for the majority of the length of the capital.