PPP has brought private sector to its knees
-PNCR charges, cites 21 bankruptcies in last 21 months
Stabroek News
November 12, 2003
The PNCR says the government's model for economic development is flawed and that over the last few years the country has seen a clutch of well-established businesses go to the wall.
The party says in the last 21 months no less than 38 companies have gone into receivership, in a country with no more than 8000 active registered commercial companies.
Speaking at the party's weekly press conference Thursday, Stanley Ming told reporters such companies were once solid businesses including: Caribbean Rice Industry Guyana Inc, Kayman Sankar and Company Ltd, Letter 'T' Estates Ltd, IDI Engineering Inc, Caribbean Molasses Co.Inc, Pereira Agricultural Co.Ltd, Supreme Seafoods Guyana Inc, Vinelli Industries Ltd, Willems Timbers and Trading Company, Mazaruni Granite Ltd, Roraima Mining Co.Ltd, Linden Power Company Co. Ltd and a host of other small, medium and large firms.
According to Ming, as a pro-business party, the PNCR has been deeply offended by government's demonstrated indifference to the plight of these businesses and by its tendency to lay all the blame on the lifestyle of the entrepreneur.
Ming added that the government's hostility to private sector investment in Guyana and the debilitating structure of the economy were not independent phenomena. "They are interlocked and the significance of the plethora of bankruptcies and prospect of the economic crisis continuing throughout the PPP/C's term in office is that the chickens are coming home to roost."
Ming remarked that government was still anchored in an ideology that advocated state-control.
He observed that unwarranted government intervention when it happened was ham-fisted and often degenerated into political interference.
Referring to a recent initiative by some banks to restructure the loan portfolios of a number of companies in distress, Ming said the government should take a similar approach and learn from the banks.
"The moment of truth may be arriving more quickly than anyone can guess.
It is not merely that the demise of our private sector is gaining momentum but the paucity of new investments and government's lack of vision in this regard now threaten the sustainability of what's left of an economy already in tatters."