Ministerial Task Force established to develop co-op sector

The Government of Guyana is looking to enhance the local co-operative movement with the aim of it becoming a sector that can contribute to the country’s economy.
To this end, the Ministry of Social Protection has established a Ministerial Task Force to ultimately “pave the way for the renaissance and expansion of the Co-operations Sector to the point where it becomes the third most important sector of the economy”.
According to the Ministry, Guyana is the only co-operative Republic in the world. It further recognised that the co-operative movement owns and controls vast amounts of resources and physical infrastructure, much of which are idle or underutilised among societies or in the form of deposits within financial institutions.
“We have therefore decided to address critical issues which will lead to re-engineering the co-operative movement to stimulate job creation and leapfrog income generation activities throughout Guyana”, the Ministry outlined in a statement.
In order to realise this objective, the ministry established the task force to examine the state of the co-operative movement in Guyana and make recommendations on steps to make that a reality.
The Task Force will be headed by former Chief Education Officer Ed Caesar and comprises: the Ministry’s Permanent Secretary Derik Cummings; Chairman of the Guyana Revenue Authority Rawle Lucas; Junior Social Protection Minister Keith Scott; Consultant, Francis Carryl; and B Adams who will serve as secretary.
The Social Protection Ministry further outlined that among the main objectives of this team is to examine each administrative region; make a determination of resources owned by societies which can be adopted for gainful economic and income generation activities. This will include an assessment of functioning and defunct societies along with the likelihood for revitalisation.
The Task Force according to the release, will also have to channel existing and new societies into government’s growth sectors such as community tourism with emphasis on: “The preservation and economic use of historical and cultural patrimony; information communication technology (ICT); establishing a green economy; support services for oil, gas and other extractive industries; agro processing and value-added production; youth development; and care for the elderly, etc.”
Furthermore, the team will be required to identify the possible horizontal sector linkages (co-operative and private), as well as state agencies to be involved in facilitating start-up and sustainable growth.
Additionally, wherever it is advantageous, the Task Force will have to apply a concept of co-operative/private partnership either via private occupation of existing co-operative resources and/or a fusion of private sector personnel by applying the core competencies of private enterprise. This will be vigorously embraced.
The Ministerial Task Force will further build on the work that has commenced by the fact-finding technical team, appointed by Minister Scott to give a jumpstart to government’s intent to revitalise and grow the co-operative sector, the Social Protection Ministry detailed.
The work of the taskforce commenced on Thursday 01 July, 2016, and a final report is expected to be submitted by September 30, 2016 latest.