Guyana Chronicle
May 20, 2001

PRIME Minister Samuel Hinds has charged the private sector with ensuring that the majority of Guyanese are fully and productively employed.

"You must be moved by the sight of your fellow Guyanese not employed or not productively employed. You need to be mobilised by their plight, to be motivated by it... You, as the engine of growth, must find ways and means of ensuring the full utilisation of our human resources towards a better life for all. That is a challenge," he said.

The Prime Minister threw out the challenge at a ceremony to launch the West Berbice Chamber of Industry and Commerce (WBCIC) on Wednesday night last.

The venue was Cheong Lee's Restaurant, Rosignol, West Bank Berbice, and special invitees included United States Ambassador to Guyana, Mr. Ronald Godard, Colombian Ambassador Mr. Luis Martinez, Chairman of the Association of Regional Chambers of Commerce, Mr. Ramdial Bookmohan, People's National Congress REFORM Parliamentarian, Mr. Lance Carberry, Regional Chairman, Region Five, Mr. Harrynarine Baldeo, several prominent business people and representatives of other recently formed Regional Chambers of Commerce.

Other speakers included Mr. Bookmohan, President of the WBCIC Mr. Tom Karran and Mr. Carberry who represented Leader of the Opposition Mr. Desmond Hoyte.

In the feature presentation to the gathering, Mr. Hinds stressed that businessmen who are interested in selling must also be interested in getting people to work.

"You have correctly identified the needs of the community, you are providing the goods and services required, but if people are unemployed or not being employed productively, they will not be able to buy.

"The only way out is to help put these people to work so that they would have the money to buy the goods and services that you are offering," he said.

He said that he hoped that representatives of the Private Sector realised that unemployment was a major social issue.

The Prime Minister also stressed the urgent need for diversification of the economy if Guyana is to achieve the high level of economic growth needed for prosperity.

"We need an economy that is 10 times what we have today. We need to get into such areas as aquaculture, furniture manufacture, tourism. Let us brainstorm, let us talk," he urged those present.

"If we are to get there, we have to sit and think, we have to be moved by what is happening around us, see opportunities, see difficulties and anticipate them and together manage to steer our economy and our country towards better days."

Mr. Bookmohan told the gathering that the Regional Chambers of Commerce of which the West Berbice Chamber was the latest addition, were formed because businessmen realised that there is a need to tap into the resources lying in the Regions.

"We want to look seriously at what we can do to boost development in each Region. We want to be able to develop the necessary programmes and investment policies so that each Region can sustain itself. This way, we will be able to look at national development and investment to the level that Guyana can move forward," he said.

Bookmohan dismissed suggestions that the Association of Regional Chambers` was trying to move businesses out of Georgetown and into the rural areas.

"We at no time want to remove any business from Georgetown because we need to create our own and new business investments in the different regions. We are merely inviting and we hope to attract investors according to the different products that we have, to come and invest in the different Regions. Through development of the Regions, Guyana can truly develop," he said.

It is not the intention of the Association of Regional Chambers of Commerce to develop into a new private sector organization, Bookmohan stressed.

"We are bringing the Chambers together so that we can have a strong voice and make strong representations on behalf of business and civil society as a whole," he said.

Bookmohan also echoed Mr. Hinds' call for the diversification of the economy.

"We have to diversify. We have to become value added. That is the only way we can more forward as a country," he said.

He also called for an expansion of the income tax base, stressing that all Guyanese need to pay taxes not just a few.

Mr. Carberry, in his address, stressed that businesses in Guyana need to be sensitive to the characteristics of the environment in which they operate.

He said that because of the marginalisation of a large section of the society, lack of investments and general lack of good governance, the current environment was a "troubled one".

He said that the private sector needed to understand the difficulties and need to work with all concerned to ensure that the environment which will help businesses to succeed and which will lead to

prosperity in Guyana is achieved.

He stressed: "Guyana is big enough, has enough resources for all of us to prosper. We all have to work together to ensure that the environment for growth and development exists, an environment in which opportunity exists for all."

Mr. Karran also supported the call for urgent diversification of the economy.

He said that the WBCIC will join the seven other members of the recently formed Regional Chambers of Commerce on a visit to countries in the Caribbean between May 27 and June 3 next to promote the development of the local business community.

Karran listed frequent power outages in West Berbice, the poor state of sections of the highway including the road into Blairmont, West Bank Berbice, and delays in the granting of firearm licences to deserving businessmen, as some of the major concerns of the newly formed Chamber.

He said that power outages create serious disruptions in economic activities in West Berbice.

He pinpointed the fishing industry as being particularly hard hit, since fishermen were unable to acquire ice to keep their catch preserved and were experiencing losses on a daily basis.

He called on the Prime Minister to use his influence to help alleviate some of the problems affecting members of the new Chamber of Commerce.

The West Berbice Chamber was officially formed on March 6 last with 10 founding members. The membership has since then grown to 18, with others coming from and representing most of the business entities within West Berbice.

The aim of the Chamber is to promote trade and to represent the business community at local and international levels.

Karran said that members of the new Chamber were committed to making it the most vibrant organisation within the local private sector.