Full statement below:
The Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI) notes with intense concern the level of crime being perpetrated in Guyana, more particularly, in recent times.
Whilst the Guyana Police Force (GPF) has posited that their official crime statistics indicate a decline in crime, the GCCI views this as not reflecting the reality of the prevailing circumstances.
Rather, and alarmingly so, the GCCI views the decline in official statistics as demonstrative of a loss in confidence in the GPF and reflective of an underreporting of criminal perpetration.
Thus, the Chamber of Commerce calls on the Guyana Police Force to adjust its laxed posture on crime and, echoes the sentiments recently expressed by the Honourable Minister of Home Affairs, to clamp down on the lawless malaise existing in daily life.
Lawlessness creates the conditions under which crime flourishes. The GCCI remains extremely concerned that should criminal acts continue unabated, that a conducive environment for doing business in Guyana will begin to erode and loss or bodily harm of Guyana’s most valuable resource – its people – will be damaging to our prospects for economic development.
