Event unmasks APNU/AFC shortage of development plans – Ramsaroop

Business Summit 2017

…“all we heard was the same tired rhetoric”

President David Granger on Wednesday demonstrated outright disdain for the Private Sector Commission (PSC) when that entity hosted ‘Guyana Business Summit 2017’ at the Guyana Marriott Hotel. Instead of bringing some measure of hope to the business community, he has in fact instilled more reasons to be wary.
This perspective was expressed by Economic Advisor to the Opposition, Peter Ramsaroop, who this week examined the hotly anticipated Business Summit which was touted as the premier forum to bring together stakeholders from across the spectrum, inclusive of the political divide, to brainstorm solutions to bring about meaningful changes in the business and economic landscapes.
Ramsaroop said this time around it can only be seen as a slap in the face of the Private Sector for the President to not come prepared with any concrete proposals.
According to Ramsaroop, it is not as if the President was told the day before that he would have to make another speech at a business forum.
“All we heard was the same tired rhetoric from President Granger… The man hadn’t even got into the meat of his speech before parrot fashion regurgitating meaningless discredited catch phrases like ‘a good life’,”
Ramsaroop expressed, adding, “The Private Sector wanted to hear what are the solutions, what are the policies that your Government intends to pursue to ensure the investment climate remains attractive.”
The business people are worried about the rampant lawlessness, robberies, and seemingly endless spate of murders which seem to be hallmarks of this Government, and which have significantly contributed to the rapid decline in the levels of foreign direct investment.
Ramsaroop observed that while the President speaks glowingly that Government has been working to create an enabling environment, this is far from reality, as it is not being felt by the business community.
He said the President’s talk of courting investors “does not mean anything substantive to the business community, since none of the persons being courted to invest in Guyana have been coming.”
Telling this publication that the President has demonstrated clearly that he is out of ideas, Ramsaroop said, “Imagine, in 2017, the President comes to a Business Summit organised by the Private Sector to hear about plans for the future — a future with an oil and gas industry — and he tells us instead about public administration, something he was elected to manage.”
The Opposition advisor has since predicted that the business community will react negatively to the utterances of the President, since his vision guides investment strategies. He told this publication, “The President cannot himself be creating a hostile environment and then go to the business community and chastise them.”
Ramsaroop maintains that the President has in fact wasted a golden opportunity to help shape a better future for Guyana.