Business

The various upbeat public pronouncements by Caribbean Community Heads of Government and by CARICOM Secretary General Edwin Carrington at the recent Commonwealth Business Forum in Port-of-Spain regarding the preparedness of the region to strengthen business ties with the rest of the Commonwealth raises some interesting questions about what we can realistically expect to derive from the forum.

Making service orientation a national culture By Jacquelyn Hamer Perfecting the practice of giving service requires both a level of technical training in the methodologies associated with the delivery of the particular service and, equally important, a disposition towards giving service.

Even though the Christmas holidays is one of the peak periods for Linden farmers, some will not be able to capitalize by increasing their output because of limited rainfall, seed availability and low consumer spending.

-road safety council The phasing out of the importation of used vehicle tyres into Guyana as part of a wider lobby both to enhance road safety and to gradually reduce the environmental hazards associated with the disposal of tyres has the support of both the National Road Safety Council and sections of the private sector according to the Council’s Coordinator Romona Doorgen.

“Big time” bribery and corruption is not unique to the conventional public and private sectors.

GASCI (www.gasci.com/telephone Nº 223-6175/6) reports that session 332’s trading results showed consideration of $1,975,377 from 217,428 shares traded in 7 transactions as compared to session 331 which showed consideration of $1,157,967 from 48,000 shares traded in 8 transactions. 

BRASILIA, (Reuters) – Emboldened by emergency  measures that helped pull Brazil out of a brief recession,  President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is intervening more  aggressively in the economy and betting on big government.

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

– says procedures must be driven by transparency — will engage Customs on any chamber  member corruption-related concern Simplification and transparency of systems and procedures within state agencies that provide important services can go a far way towards reducing the level of corruption in the relationships between those state agencies and the people seeking their services.

– business sector cautious, spending power may not be there A lacklustre start to the accustomed pre-Christmas consumer spending has left both the downtown business community and the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI) cautious as to whether or not the commercial sector can recoup some of the ground lost in a year which saw a significant reduction in disposable income among working class Guyanese.

It is pretty clear from Transparency Internation-al’s 2009 Global Report on Corruption that the taking of bribes and kickbacks by politicians in developing countries is a well-established and institutionalized practice.

Regulatory and enforcement bodies and their enabling role in a culture of good customer service Jacquelyn Hamer Last week I dealt briefly with the Consumer Protection Act, the fact that it is yet to secure presidential assent despite its passage in the National Assembly some years ago and – as a consequence of the absence of any meaningful mechanisms to safeguard consumer rights – we are stuck with a regime of vendor/customer relations that is not only replete with injustices but in which there is little if any recourse for aggrieved customers.

By Rawle Lucas Origins Some of the young members are among the 44 percent of Guyanese who are not in the labour force. 

By Elaine Burns Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are of huge importance to the global economy, representing over 95 per cent of businesses worldwide and even more than 99 per cent of the business sector in countries such as Belgium, Greece, Italy and South Korea.

GASCI (www.gasci.com/telephone Nº 223-6175/6) reports that session 331’s trading results showed consideration of $1,157,967 from 48,000 shares traded in 8 transactions as compared to session 330 which showed consideration of $885,706 from 77,234 shares traded in 5 transactions. 

Raking in US$20 to US$40 billion annually in bribes, kickbacks -Transparency International Corrupt politicians and government officials in “developing and transition countries” are  believed to receive bribes and kickbacks totalling between US$20 billion and US$40 billion annually, the equivalent of between 20 and 40 per cent of development assistance, according to the 2009 Global Corruption Report published by Transparency International.

Visiting team meets gov’t, private sector The strengthening of the human resource base of both the private and public sectors of the Caribbean in order to ensure that institutions are more responsive to regional developmental needs is one of the key priorities of the University of the West Indies’ Cave Hill School of Business (CHSB), Programme Director Ann Wallace told Stabroek Business in an interview earlier this week.

Editorial On Thursday, October 15th Prime Minister Samuel Hinds promised the nation through the National Assembly that come November 5th there would have been some measure of relief from the worsening power supply problems that have plagued the country for some months now.