Vice President Dr Bharat Jagdeo says government is committed to establishing the necessary framework to enable the growth and development of the country’s private sector.
The Vice President was at the time delivering the feature address at a corporate dinner hosted by the Private Sector Commission at Parc Ryne on Wednesday evening.
Jagdeo said while local business may have beneficial projects, they are often challenged by access to financial resources.
“Clearly, we know that our private sector, even when they have good projects, projects that are bankable, are having a hard time accessing financing and the cost of that finance even when they access it, is often prohibitive because they are competing with investors from abroad who have a lower cost finance. So, unless we find a way of addressing this issue our local private sector would permanently be at a disadvantage.”
As such, he said the necessary policies are currently being reviewed to ensure there is a change.
“We have an international presence here that operates at different levels of competency and different pace of getting things done. Unless we evolve in mindset, both from the private sector and the government to adjust to that pace of moving the economy forward, we would be left behind, or we would lose many of the opportunities that could come to our people, the Guyanese private sector and to our country.”
Vice President Jagdeo disclosed that recognising this, the Government has mapped out all the areas needed to be addressed and has been tackling those issues at “breakneck speed.” He noted that while the Government has embarked on this path, much of the work has been stymied as they inherited a rundown economy.
“We have had to fix a dysfunctional system to make it operate just at a basic level of efficacy and this was largely because of the regression in the past five years,” he said.
The Vice President also urged members of the private sector to invest in the country’s development, particularly in the areas of education and health. These, he said, are vital areas for future investment as they hold enormous opportunities.
The event was attended by members of the private sector, the diplomatic community and other special invitees. [Extracted and Modified from DPI]
