Dear Editor,

Mr Peter Ramsaroop's letter captioned `Our Ambassador in Washington must engage in lobbying for investment' (19-02-2002) hit the nail of the problem on its head. Those ardent supporters of the government should realize that what most of the learned social commentators seem to be freely advising the government to do is to get out of the 'cake shop' mentality and start managing the government, and the business of the nation, as a productive and profitable going concern. Tuesday's editorial [ please note: links provided by LOSP web site ] was equally noteworthy: the political and economic climates are intrinsically linked and must receive the unselfish support of both the government and opposition.

Guyana has to be able to sell itself as a creditworthy nation with decreasing levels of risk, in order to secure better facilities in both the International Bond and Equity Markets and to attract tangible investments. The responsibility for this rests with both the government and its political opposition. In order to achieve this, the political climate must be stabilized and the judicial system has to be separate and removed from government control and/or influence. Additionally, the legal and administrative bureaucracies must be removed to encourage investors.

Without this everything else is just talk and no substance.

Yours faithfully,

Merrill Hyman Sr.