Business

By Gladstone Wynter (Jamaica Observer) – The recent volatility of gold prices has left a lot of investors asking the question, “Is it a good time now to buy gold?”

Years of feverish negotiations between government and the local mining community over enhanced protection for the sector from an increasingly bold and ruthless criminal element is yet to pay any major dividends, according to some miners who attended the discourses on the industry during the Mining Week think-in held at the International Convention Centre at Liliendaal.

Guyanese artists, craftsmen and women who travelled to Suriname to display and market their art and craft at the recently concluded 11th Caribbean Festival of Arts (CARIFESTA) were required to pay a non-refundable fee on their respective consignments, contrary to what they understood to be the conditions under which they were participating in the regional festival.

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.

The Ministry of Tourism, Industry and Commerce has told Stabroek Business that arising out of concerns expressed in the local poultry sector that artificial shortages are being created to force price increases, permits have been granted to eighteen importers to secure chicken from the United States and Suriname.

Severe downpours on Tuesday night that increased in intensity early on Wednesday morning provided Georgetown’s established merchants with a head-start on the pavement vendors.

The vulnerability of small, fragile Caribbean economies to money laundering associated with narcotics and the laundering of illegally gotten funds makes it imperative that their governments ensure strict adherence to anti-money laundering measures and international benchmarks, a former United States banking regulator has said.

GASCI (www.gasci.com/telephone Nº 223-6175/6) reports that session 526’s trading results showed consideration of $915,134 from 30,908 shares traded in 8 transactions as compared to session 525 which showed consideration of $9,412,050 from 480,625 shares traded in 20 transactions. 

Alfonso de Armas Mitchell and his wife Margarita have come a long way from twenty-one years ago when they first came to Guyana where he had been offered a job as a Marketing Executive with the Subryanville-based French firm, Amcar, that packages and exports Heart of Palm.

It appears not to have occurred to any of the sides in what has degenerated into an outrageously acrimonious debate over the proposed Amaila Falls Hydroelectric Project that there exists a close and critical relationship between the quality of life of ordinary Guyanese and the realization of a cheap and reliable source of energy.

With world market prices for gold now in continual decline for most of this year, the local mining industry is challenging itself to raise production levels to ensure that increased volumes compensate for continually falling prices.

The Government of Trinidad and Tobago announced earlier this month that it would spend TT$5 million over the next eighteen months to raise public awareness in the twin-island republic regarding the importance of its tourism product.

There is an intensity in the engagement between buyers and sellers in the city during the final days leading to the start of the new school year.

Guyana’s beekeeping industry could benefit from access to various forms of technical support from facilities in the United States following discussions here between local industry officials and a Louisiana-based beekeeper who recently completed a two-week stay here providing various forms of technical support for beekeepers.

GASCI (www.gasci.com/telephone Nº 223-6175/6) reports that session 525’s trading results showed consideration of $9,412,050 from 480,625 shares traded in 20 transactions as compared to session 524 which showed consideration of $3,179,440 from 20,076 shares traded in 7 transactions. 

An economic profile of   Guyana underpinned by images of a country rich in mineral resources is no longer sustainable in the contemporary era, Prime Minister Samuel Hinds told the Stabroek Business in an exclusive interview on Wednesday.

Some Caribbean countries not dancing to Beijing’s tuneThe aggressive Chinese push to strengthen ties, particularly economic ones, with the Caribbean has not been a complete success despite billions of dollars of expenditure by Beijing in loans, grants and high-priced projects across the region.

Concerns over the future of the PetroCaribe oil deal brokered between Venezuela and Guyana and other Caribbean countries during the presidency of the late President Hugo Chavez were raised here during this week’s two-day National Economic Forum.