Business

Local sawmills and lumberyards are habitually in breach of the regulations governing the sale of timber, which sometimes have a serious impact on consumer satisfaction, officials of the Guyana Forest Producers Association (GFPA) have told Stabroek Business.

Farmers from the Essequibo coast and Pomeroon River have secured ‘high marks’ from international donors and visiting specialists for the progress which they have made in ‘taking forward’ a Shade House Vegetable Production Project launched in several parts of the country with the support of several multilateral agencies including Partners for the Americas, Caribbean Self-Reliance International (CASRI) and the Inter American Development Bank through its Multilateral Investment Fund.

Vilma Da Silva is a hale and hearty-looking 50-year-old resident of the Pomeroon with as fine a business brain as any you might find in the city’s corporate community.

GASCI (www.gasci.com/telephone Nº 223-6175/6) reports that session 460’s trading results showed consideration of $8,736,516 from 605,193 shares traded in 16 transactions as compared to session 459

Stakeholders in the local forestry sector are to make a submission to local commercial banks that could determine whether or not the industry secures the financial support it desperately needs for recapitalization, President of the Forest Producers Associa-tion (FPA) Hilbertus Cort has told the Stabroek Business.

Significant changes in the mining industry resulting from the profits that now accrue to investors continue to present challenges to the regulatory capacity of the state machinery, a Guyana Gold and Diamond Miners Association (GGDMA) senior official has told Stabroek Business.

Beginning in this issue, Stabroek Business will be publishing a series of interviews with women owners of business enterprises.

Since 2008 Farfan and Mendes has been partnering with one of the world’s leaders in the water treatment industry in an undertaking that seeks to enhance countrywide access to potable water.

Even as sections of the small business community continue to pronounce on  challenges associated with accessing commercial bank loans, Republic Bank says it continues to offer “a comprehensive range of corporate, commercial and retail banking services” to meet the business and personal financial needs of small and medium enterprises.

The proliferation of food vendors on city streets is posing major challenges for the Georgetown municipality in its efforts to effectively monitor health and safety standards in the industry, acting Chief Meat and Food Inspector Jagdish Singh told Stabroek Business in a telephone interview earlier this week.

Relatively low cost of living and favourable weather conditions position Guyana as one of the ideal destinations for offshore siting of international universities, Chief Executive Officer and Executive Vice President of Texila American University Saju Bhaskar told Stabroek Business in an interview earlier this week.

Business Cartoons

GASCI (www.gasci.com/telephone Nº 223-6175/6) reports that session 459’s trading results showed consideration of $8,241,677 from 183,675 shares traded in 8 transactions as compared to session 458 which showed consideration of $32,362,551 from 261,688 shares traded in 38 transactions. 

Expressions of concern from the private sector over what it says is a scarcity of skills in key areas of the productive sector are nothing new.

Chastened by the challenges associated with traditional approaches to agriculture not least of which are flooding, pests and soil deficiencies, the local agricultural sector has, for some years now, been exploring the potential of hydroponics, a farming method the uses mineral nutrient solutions in water without soil.

The Government Technical Institute (GTI) is currently is helping to meet the skills needs of the local business community and is even responding to requests from enterprises in the Caribbean to provide trained graduates to meet some of the needs of industry in the region, Principal Carl Benn told Stabroek Business in an interview earlier this week.

The fact that there is as yet no evidence of a focused response from either the government or the private sector to the recently promulgated US Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) is reflective of a seeming indifference to a development, which has direct and potentially serious implications for the country’s manufacturing sector (though not exclusively) and particularly for aspiring small businesses within the sector.

Important Pillars The talk about competitiveness is not idle chatter and no one thinks that the administration sees it that way. 

With several of the critical regulations under the new United States Food Safety Modernization Act (FMSA) now just a matter of months away, Guyanese exporters of foods to the United States could face loss of critical markets in the face of what appears to be both public and private sector inaction in seeking to put mechanisms in place to ensure compliance with those regulations.