Private Sector Commission (PSC) Chairman Gerry Gouveia on Friday urged Guyanese politicians to stop the fight as Guyana prepares to welcome first oil in 2020.
A section of the gathering
“Guyana is going to be amazing for every man, woman and child; the only thing we all need to do in this room is to besiege our politicians to stop fighting, work together so that we can improve the economics of our country, reap the benefits of others before us and particularly take advantage of the tourism industry and the issue of what all of the wealth from oil will bring for us,” Gouveia stated.
The PSC Chairman was at the time speaking at a baking seminar held by the National Milling Company of Guyana (NAMILCO) as the company continued its 50th anniversary celebrations.
He noted that Guyana was at a point where every standard needed to be upgraded in order for the country not to be overrun.
Gouveia urged the more than 130 businesses which attended the seminar to strive for international standards and to make Guyana marketable.
A display of a variety of NAMILCO’s products
“And if we don’t as Guyanese ramp up our skills, our certification, we could talk local content forever, but if we don’t upgrade our certification and upgrade our standards, we are going to be overrun; rightly so if we do not get ourselves up to international standards. We cannot want to demand local content when we ourselves are not upgrading our services,” Gouveia noted.
As such, the PSC Head applauded NAMILCO for hosting the event which he observed was a move in the right direction to improve Guyana and its tourism value.
“When you guys start to make pastries that really start to meet the standard, a lot more flour would be sold and so I understand the point that NAMILCO is making. Our tourism industry have been struggling for many years and the issue of visibility and of marketing our country is one that we have been very delinquent on … to market the country, you need to have something to market,” Gouveia noted.
In his remarks, NAMILCO’s Managing Director, Roopnarine (Berth) Sukhi shared with the gathering tips that could aid in the improvement of their business standards.
Some of the tips include having a strong front that is: improve on your business appeal, improve on your packaging, spread your name far and wide, start making a variety of products, acquire international certification, observe good manufacturing practices, and practice guidelines outlined in the Food Safety Act.
The Director further cautioned the businesses present to be conscious of the fact that many investors were presently eyeing the baking and catering industry.
“Economic activities will increase and you stand to benefit; however, some of these investors may be looking at the baking and catering industry so that your livelihood would also be threatened, you have to try and protect your market, but to do so, you will need to reengineer your business. It will need complete change in the way that you carry on your trade … we are aware of larger bakeries that are looking to enter Guyana, we should all be on guard and be able to find the niche in the market in order to remain in business,” Sukhi cautioned.
Also among the topics of discussion at the event were the proper preparation of pastry dough and how it could be used for various products as well as discussions on general issues and what the future held for the baking sector.
