President David Granger, speaking at a recent event opined that Guyana cannot go into the next fifty years dependent on the ‘six sisters’ namely bauxite, fish, rice, sugar gold and timber only.
The President reasoned that the increasing use of technology , the growth of services, the proliferation of small businesses and intensification of liberalisation has catapulted the role of the private sector in the economy and consequently the importance of entrepreneurship.
Granger believes the culture of entrepreneurship in Guyana has blossomed but certainly is not blooming “it needs to be encouraged in order to accentuate balanced development across all regions …all of our ten regions, it needs to be accelerated so that agricultural production, manufacture and commerce so that it can assist in capital formation and provide greater access to credit …and of course to produce higher levels of employment… self-employment,” he said.
The culture of entrepreneurship geared towards growth, Granger said rests on certain predictable and secure pillars, “first of all is information, entrepreneurship relies increasingly on information, information on markets, investments trends, about opportunities in technological and scientific development and new business horizons.”
The Head of State also alluded to infrastructure;both physical and technological which contributes to improved competitiveness.
Efficient transportation, construction of bridges and highways and access to cheap electricity are also important the President noted.
