Not time to complain, time for action – Pres Ali urges Guyanese businesses to go after large-scale opportunities

…says Govt ready to offer help

President Dr Irfaan Ali has called on the local private sector to come together and pool resources in order to go after large-scale opportunities, rather than complaining about foreign companies coming and taking away them. “We can’t sit down and complain on a newspaper front page every day that foreign investors are coming, building the company, showing the worth of the company and selling it the next day for greater money. That is how economies operate. That is how the global market operates….this is the time for action…not the time to complain,” the Head of State declared during the commissioning of Jags Aviation’s two new aircraft on Saturday evening. His remarks come as he challenges operators in the local aviation industry to get together and set up a regional carrier to tap into the market within the Caribbean. “I believe that our aviation players should come together to look towards developing a regional carrier, because Guyana’s ambitions now seem limitless. We have to get the heads together and come up with a plan that is viable and sustainable,” he stated during Saturday’s event. Only on Friday last, the Guyanese Leader expressed similar sentiments when he announced plans to establish a national mining company to allow Guyanese stakeholders to capitalise on large-scale opportunities in the mining sector. “We’re going to come together, create a consortium, buy the best technology, do all of the technical work and move towards creating a world-class mining company owned by Guyanese, built by Guyanese, in which every citizen [within the mining sector is involved],” Ali noted on Friday during the commissioning of Citizens Bank Guyana Inc’s new branch location at Bartica, Region Seven. The President had explained that this initiative will broaden financial participation and access to various mechanisms for many local large, medium, small-sized miners, thus enabling financial inclusion at every level. He added that it will also ensure that Guyanese retain ownership of the opportunities within the local mining sector instead of them being taken up by large foreign miners.

Ready to assist
According to President Ali during Saturday’s event, his Government is ready to assist Guyanese businesses in going after these opportunities. “Our private sector must come together. We must use the private sector and go after larger scale opportunities. And if we wait too long, others will take the place, this is a time to put every shoulder behind the wheel and create the ecosystem. You have a Government that is ready to sit with you in a collective and help you to build this country,” he stated. The Head of State went onto point out that resources are being wasted when companies do not pool their resources together. For instance, he noted that there is no need to for 10 companies to each send their own trucks into interior locations such as Lethem to transport goods when they can create one logistics chain and send a long hauler instead with all the products. “As a Government, our duty is to ensure national scale survival. And national scale survival requires us to bring all the participants together… The possibility of the market of Haiti opening up, the possibility of the market of Cuba opening up, present immense opportunity if we are ahead of the curve.”
“Are we willing to be ahead of the curve? Are we satisfied playing little hopscotch against each other? The scale of our country growth requires a different scale in the thinking of our people. It requires a different scale in the business strategy in each corporate boardroom, so that we can apply our collective ambition for national development,” the President emphasised.

Regional companies
The Guyanese Leader contended that regional companies that export their goods to Guyana must also look into setting up manufacturing facilities here. He pointed out that the various incentives being granted by Government to investors coupled with the reduction in electricity costs that will become available when the Gas-to-Energy (GtE) Project starts operating later this year will create the conducive environment for industrial activities. “If we are not good enough for you to manufacture and produce your goods by investing in our economy, then we are not good enough to consume our goods too. We have given all the incentives for agro-processing. We have given all the incentives for manufacturing. There is nothing or no other economy in the region that offers more policy-based incentives for agro-processing than Guyana. It is time the region manufacturers bring that manufacturing here, if they are going to continue to expand in this market,” he insisted. According to President Ali, his Government is already working with the Dominican Republic expand the local agro-processing industry in a major way. “We don’t only want the sausage fresh and nice and well-priced; we want it manufactured in Guyana. We cannot go forward without value creation and manufacturing in this country. And that is where our energy must be. And that is why this investment is critical,” he contended.