GMSA calls for review of State-owned bottled water plant

See full statement from the Guyana Manufacturing and Services Association: 

The Guyana Manufacturing and Services Association (GMSA) has been following the Government’s release regarding the National Assembly’s approval of $496.3 million for a state-owned water bottling facility under Guyana Water Incorporated (GWI).

Earlier this year, GMSA, together with local bottled water manufacturers, met with the Minister of Public Utilities and Aviation, Hon. Deodat Indar, and the leadership of GWI to discuss opportunities and challenges facing Guyana’s bottled water industry. During that engagement, the Association welcomed the Government’s vision of achieving 100% locally produced bottled water (HS 2201), recognizing it as a strategic opportunity to strengthen local manufacturing, create jobs, and enhance Guyana’s economic resilience. GMSA remains firmly committed to that objective.

As the representative body for manufacturers, the GMSA has a direct interest in one dimension of this discussion: the relationship between this proposed state venture and the private Guyanese businesses that already produce and distribute bottled water in this country. Several GMSA members have invested capital, built distribution networks, and created jobs in this space over many years. Any initiative by the state should be structured to strengthen, not to compete with or undermine, that existing private investment.

We recall His Excellency President Dr. Mohamed Irfaan Ali’s own February announcement on local bottled-water production explicitly calling for “close collaboration between the government and private sector,” including shared production infrastructure such as bottle manufacturing, to bring down costs across the industry; not a state-run operation competing directly with private producers. GMSA welcomes the President’s call and urges GWI and the Ministry of Public Utilities and Aviation to structure this project accordingly: as a partnership that lowers costs and expands capacity for the whole sector, rather than a taxpayer-funded competitor to existing private industry.

The Association is concerned that direct state participation in a market already served by local manufacturers could discourage future private investment, create uncertainty for businesses that have committed substantial capital to the sector, and potentially undermine the Government’s broader agenda of promoting private sector-led growth and industrial development. GMSA also reaffirms that GWI’s foundational mandate, which is to provide reliable, safe potable water delivery to every household, must remain its core priority, and any commercial diversification should be additive to, not a distraction from, that mission.

The Association therefore respectfully calls on the Government to review the proposed investment and engage in further consultation with local bottled water manufacturers and other stakeholders before proceeding, GMSA stands ready to engage directly with GWI and the Ministry on behalf of its membership to help shape this initiative in a way that serves both consumers and Guyana’s private sector.