Business

Bank of Guyana (BoG) Governor Lawrence Williams has been seeking to allay fears that the decision to introduce a new $5,000 note will trigger inflation in the country’s economy.

The banking sector continues to be guarded in response to questions that have been raised by this newspaper about how local commercial banks propose to respond to a new United States law, which requires foreign banks and other agencies to provide the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) with financial information pertaining to account holders and investors holding US citizenship.

High hopes for another year of record production in the country’s gold industry are doing little to conceal the escalating tensions between government and the sector over what the Guyana Gold and Diamond Miners Association (GGDMA) perceives as a battle by gold miners to stave off government’s attempts to tighten its control over the sector.

It’s not just the high-priced, high-profile, well financed development projects that make an impact.

One year after it was established with the objective of equipping female entrepreneurs in Region Four with the knowledge, skills and support to develop sustainable businesses, the Women’s Entrepreneurship Network (WENET) is looking to the wider corporate s community to help keep alive the ideal of strengthening the entrepreneurial base among Guyanese women.

Every fortnight, on Sunday, Edith Adams departs Moruka in a small boat powered by a 15 horse-power engine for a trip to Charity that takes up to nine hours.

Local commercial banks have restated their preparedness to help finance the growth of the small business sector in Guyana, but maintain that lending decisions will continue to be based on judgements that are rooted in the soundness of such entities.

Amid concern that official indifference to the plague of pirated text books will allow the practice to persist and in the face of the unrelenting assault from pirates, Lloyd Austin, proprietor of Austin’s Bookstore, the city’s largest, has had to effect still more cuts to orders for text books.

Head of Corporate Affairs and Forestry Planning at Barama Company, Mohindra Chand, has been named the new President of the Guyana Manufacturing and Services Association (GMSA) to replace

Business Cartoons

Several months ago in an interview with this newspaper, General Secretary of the Guyana Trades Union Congress (GTUC), Lincoln Lewis, expressed concern that business houses had become so preoccupied with profits, they were increasingly unmindful of matters that have to do with the welfare of their employees.

GASCI (www.gasci.com/telephone Nº 223-6175/6) reports that session 469’s trading results showed consideration of $12,794,079 from 520,826 shares traded in 21 transactions as compared to session 468 which showed consideration of $27,835,818 from 167,638 shares traded in 17 transactions. 

Digicel hopes that legislation terminating the monopoly hold which its competitor has on the telecommunications sector will be passed during the course of this year, though the company’s Chief Executive Officer Gregory Dean says it will not set a timeline for an end to the monopoly.

Local building contractors may soon be required to operate within a new regulatory framework that seeks to ensure that they possess the credentials to deliver on the expectations of their clients.

One does not get the impression that the private sector in our sister Caricom country, Barbados, stands on ceremony as far as engaging the government on issues that have to do with their respective roles in ensuring that the business community remains what we in Guyana loosely describe as the engine of growth.

Small size Quite often Guyanese lament the small size of their economy, but just for one time, they might be glad that their country is small. 

The Soesdyke-Linden Highway is the location of several business enterprises that reflect the determination of Guyanese women to enhance their entrepreneurial reputations; none of these better exemplifies the spirit of entrepreneurship that which reposes in our womenfolk than the Yarowkabra Coal Burning Association, registered since February 2003 under the Friendly Societies Act.

The Guyana Forestry Commission (GFC) has announced new rates of export commission on logs destined for overseas markets with effect from August 1 this year.

Sixty-eight-year-old Dahlia Lewis or Auntie Pauline as she is known to her relatives and friends is an amiable and unpretentious woman who values much more the independence of her self-employment than the title of ‘Woman in Business’ which we choose to ascribe to her.