The ninth edition of the prestigious ‘Business Guyana’ Magazine was launched Thursday evening under the theme ‘Guyana on the Rise’ which is symbolic of the fact that the country is on the cusp of takeoff and therefore a magnet for investors.
The magazine, the brainchild of the Georgetown Chambers of Commerce and Industry (GCCI), has for years served as an investors’ guide to doing business in Guyana.
The focus of this year’s edition is on local sectors that are on the rise.
President of the GCCI, Deodat Indar, told a gathering of business executives and government officials at the Pegasus Hotel that there are at least seven sectors that are promising to investors.
These are the rice, credit for private investments, wholesale and retail, hospitality and tourism, education and standards and real estate.
The business executive urged the relevant authorities, government and private sector to work and develop strategies and policies to arrest the decline and stagnation in some of the economic sectors.
“Other sectors that need urgent attention in the economy are the mining and quarrying sector, financial sector and the agriculture sector, especially in the sugar sub-sector where there are huge job losses,” Indar noted.
He also explained that fuel prices need to be affordable as it has a wide impact on price inflation and it increases costs of living.
Further, Indar noted that while the booming oil and gas sector is currently the talk of the town, it must be developed in conjunction with other sectors of the economy.
“We need a diversified mix of economic sectors to withstand external shocks if world market prices fall to unsustainable levels for prolonged periods in the future,” he stated.
Feature Speaker, Komal Samaroo, the Executive Chairman of Beverage Giant, Demerara Distillers Limited (DDL) spoke about the need for Guyana to develop its manufacturing sector.
He noted that with Guyana’s population of less than one million people, the local market is too small for the development of a vibrant manufacturing sector.
Quoting the US investor, Chris Anderson in his 2012 novel “Makers – The New Industrial Revolution”, Samaroo said “any country, if it wants to stay strong, must have a manufacturing base. Even today, about a quarter of the US economy consists of the manufacturing of physical goods. When you include their distribution and sale in the retail outlets, you’re talking about closer to three-quarters of the economy.”
The business magazine is organized around investment, private sector development, trade and foreign relations, entrepreneurship and Guyana’s overall development.
It also includes question and answer segments from prominent business executives like Samaroo, Rosh Khan and Kerwin Bollers.
