Business

Industry open to alternative methods that make business sense Executive Secretary of the Guyana Gold and Diamond Miners Association, Edward Shields has told Stabroek Business that the mining sector is not necessarily wedded to the use of mercury in the gold reclamation process.

– but Guyana wants increased resource flow, removal of disbursement bottlenecks The Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) must move quickly to increase the net flow of resources to its Borrowing Member Countries (BMCs) if it is to play its expected role in helping those countries to confront the food security and other challenges confronting them at this time, according to Finance Minister Dr Ashni Singh.

There has hardly been a period over the past thirty-odd years when this country has not been plagued by problems associated with the inability of the local power company to provide a reliable supply of electricity.

Controversy over mercury use in mining activity  and its impact on the environment has impacted significantly on the image of the mining sector in Guyana.

Three Caribbean Community (Caricom) countries, Jamaica, Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago are moving ahead with the setting up of local Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) implementation units aimed at assisting Cariforum countries to capitalize on funding avenues which are expected to be made available by the European Union but Guyana’s is not far advanced.

– says businessmen must be able to engage the media without fear or prejudice The critical importance of the private sector to restoring the fortunes of the Guyana economy requires that there be greater, more involved interaction between the business community and the media, according to President of the Guyana Manufacturers and Services Association (GMSA) Ramesh Dookhoo.

GASCI (www.gasci.com/telephone Nº 223-6175/6) reports that session 307’s trading results showed consideration of $323,641 from 30,180 shares traded in 8 transactions as compared to session 306 which showed consideration of $249,400 from 18,450 shares traded in 7 transactions. 

Private sector entities seeking to take advantage of trading opportunities available to Guyanese businesses under Free Trade Area (FTA) Agreements with countries in the hemisphere will benefit from a series of workshops which manufacturers association President Ramesh Dookhoo says are designed to provide participants with “critical information” regarding approaches to doing business with those countries.

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

…past economic policy failures also a factor President of the Caribbean Development Bank, Dr Compton Bourne has said that while the global economic and financial crisis currently affecting  the bank’s Borrowing Member Countries (BMC’s) is a consequence of severe external economic shocks,  vulnerability to the  crisis has been accentuated by past economic policy failures.

First quarter bauxite production plunges “Tentative” production figures released to Stabroek Business by the Guyana Manufacturing and Services Association (GMSA) indicate a drastic reduction in bauxite production for the first quarter of 2009, a circumstance which GMSA President Ramesh Dookhoo says reflects the dramatic shrinkage in the world market demand for the commodity.

The sense of disappointment, even frustration over the slow pace at which the hoped-for creation of a strong regional agribusiness sector is proceeding was evident in the presentations at last week’s regional agribusiness forum by Caricom Secretary General Edwin Carrington, Agriculture Minister Robert Persaud and, at the end of the two-day forum, by President Bharrat Jagdeo.

By Rawle Lucas (Rawle Lucas is a Guyanese-born Certified Public Accountant and Assistant Vice President of the Lending Services Division.

Stabroek Business has agreed to publish a series of articles prepared by the Guyana Manufacturers and Services Association (GMSA) on issues of interest to the manufacturing sector and to the business community as a whole.

President Jagdeo calls for less talk and more action Caricom SG urges greater Secretariat role In the face of growing impatience on the part of  President Bharrat Jagdeo over the slow pace of progress towards the creation of a viable regional agribusiness sector, Caribbean Community Secretary General Dr Edwin Carrington is advocating a more central role for the Georgetown-based Caricom Secretariat in hastening the pace towards the realization of the regional objective.

Some Caricom states deliberately restricting free flow of trade – GMSA President The promulgation of a Caricom Single Market more than two years ago has done little so far to accelerate fair and equitable access to regional markets by member countries of the Community, according to President of the Guyana Manufacturing and Services Association (GMSA) Ramesh Dookhoo.

Third quarter deadline for new electricity plant `unacceptable’ – GMSA President The protracted periods of power outage that have gripped parts of the country over the past few weeks have evoked angry responses from sections of the Georgetown business community backed by calls from the Heads of the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Guyana Manufacturing and Services Association (GMSA) for the Guyana Power and Light Company (GPL) to seek to bring forward its announced time frame for ending the power supply woes.