Business

Carolyn Paul is hoping that her venture into a major commercial enterprise with four Surinamese business partners can, in its own way, contribute to cementing relations between the two South American republics.

Caribbean Container Inc (CCI) is celebrating the milestone of a modest profit at the end of 2012, a feat which it has been unable to achieve in more than 15 years.

One of the realities that is increasingly being driven home to small business owners and aspirants, Business Support Organisations (BSOs) and the government is that it really makes no sense standing around and bellyaching over the lack of access which SMEs must endure in their efforts to secure funding from local commercial banks for the expansion/ upgrading of small businesses or for the creation of new ones.

The Business Cartoon

Ambitious A review of the 2013 budget shows that an estimated $370 million are being directed towards small businesses this year. 

Local exporters of food products (agricultural produce and processed foods) who either access US markets or aspire to do so still appear far from seized with a sense of urgency associated with the two-year-old Food Safety Modernisation Act (FSMA), a United States law that seeks to protect its citizens from food-borne diseases but which, simultaneously, could spell trouble for all food exporters to the US.

Vice President of the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI) and Chief Execu-tive Officer of Brain Street Lance Hinds wants local small and medium-sized enterprises to look to the Caribbean Export Develop-ment Agency (Carib Export) to fill the gap in support of local businesses arising out of the difficulties associated with securing funding from commercial banks and high interest rates being charged by other lending agencies.

A newly-formed agricultural cooperative working with the support of the Ministry of Agriculture through the Guyana Livestock Development Association (GLDA) is seeking to mobilise pig farmers from across the country in an effort to raise pig-rearing standards, increase production and improve market access for local pork and pork products.

Stock market updates

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

While tacitly acknowledging that corruption exists in state-run agencies, Guyana’s President Donald Ramotar says efforts to tackle corruption in the society must also focus on “the business community” where he says “the bribers are located.

Dismissing concerns being expressed here that local small businesses may not be benefiting – compared with their counterparts in other Cariforum countries – from financial resources for enhancing growth and building capacity available through the Caribbean Export Development Agency (Caribbean Export, Deputy Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Commerce Dhaneshwar Deonarine is urging that they submit proposals for Direct Assistance Grants under the 10th European Development Fund (EDF).

Correcting Guyana’s unflattering image as a corruption-ridden country will have to be a priority of his administration if some of his other goals like attracting foreign investment are to be realised.

Hive of Activity All eyes have been plastered on the behavior of gold over the last few years as the price of the commodity created enormous buzz and stirred many to invest in the industry in Guyana. 

Efforts by the Competition and Consumer Affairs Commission to ensure compliance by the business community with legislation requiring traders to provide refunds on goods returned on the grounds that they are defective or for other specific reasons continue to be widely and flagrantly disregarded, Director of the Competition and Consumer Affairs Commission Seema Rambarran said.

More than two years after US President signed the country’s Food Safety Modernization Act into law, farmers and agro-processors who currently enjoy limited US markets still appear to be in the dark as to the magnitude of the changes that will be required if they are to meet the all of the conditions set out in the legislation.

Dr Suresh Persaud insists that he is not a farmer. The legitimacy of such claims as he can make to the land are limited to his grandfather’s pursuit of rice farming, in which he took no interest.

In our April 12th issue, the Stabroek Business published a story headlined ‘Mobile Money Targets Billing Companies” in which we stated that GT&T “is operating under a licence issued by the Bank of Guyana and subject to oversight and regulation.

The Guyana Manufacturing and Services Association (GMSA) last week announced the less than surprising re-election of  Guyana National Industrial Corporation (GNIC) Chief Executive  Officer Clinton Williams to the presidency of the Guyana Manufacturing and Services Association.