Unity in the local private sector has been an elusive commodity.
The private sector is served by a number of organisations representing varying interests. In 1992, the Private Sector Commission was established to speak with a unified voice for the private sector.
However, self interest and other issues saw a fractious private sector evolving and with different faces assuming the chairmanship of the PSC with differing loyalties over the years, the credibility of the PSC had eroded.
The appointment of Dr Peter de Groot to the chairmanship two years ago restored the credibility of the organisation but the fundamental issue of a divisive private sector became more prominent during his last few months in the chair when several umbrella organisations heeled to an Office of the President request for meetings with the President, including the Guyana Manufacturers Association, whose President at the time, Ramesh Dookhoo, was also the vice-chairman of the PSC, knowing full well that the PSC had been excluded.
The President refused to respond to a request by de Groot for a meeting to move forward. Since then, there has been no correspondence between the Office of the President and the PSC.
A window of opportunity now presents itself for the private sector to unify and speak with a unified voice. Doreen de Caires, a woman known as a go-getter, has assumed the mantle of President of the GMA and astute businessman and founding member of the PSC, Yesu Persaud, has been returned to the post of chairman of the PSC.
De Caires, in her first media interview, lists unity in the private sector as her number one priority and Persaud will no doubt be championing the same cause to allow the private sector to speak with one voice.
Businessmen and women have to recognize that heeling to the powers that be will only last until the tide turns and the best remedy would be in having a unified private sector championing the cause of each sector.
The local private sector is a far cry from the proclaimed 'engine of growth' both because of flaws in the enabling environment facilitated by the government as well as by flaws in its own thinking.
The manufacturing sector continues to produce below capacity and its contribution to national output is marginal. The industrial sector has been faced with its own difficulties and agriculture now faces its worst challenge in the reform of the EU sugar regime.
The government has to recognise that it has no choice but to be an open, transparent and unbiased facilitator for the private sector so that that sector can play its role fully and help return Guyana to substantial growth to improve the welfare of all. If the government fulfils its role with decisiveness, businesses will have no cause to complain and can take the charge and run ahead or fall by the wayside as other enterprising spirits rush ahead.
There is much to be gained in having a unified private sector and a government fully committed to facilitating its progress and development, as was so famously the case in Japan and other Asian economies.