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PSC zeroes in on agri for economic recovery
A section of the participants at the AGM yesterday.
The Private Sector Commission (PSC) is now a well unified, greased and efficient organisation. This is according to outgoing Chairman , Captain Gerry Gouveia, during his presentation at the PSC’s Annual General Meeting (AGM) that was held at Duke Lodge on Tuesday.
Gouveia said that the PSC was one of the first organizations to be involved in the consultations of the Security Sector Reform Action Plan. He noted that the PSC was very concerned when the programme was not progressing at the expected level and pace.
The outgoing chairman also noted that the PSC recognises that agriculture is an important sector for Guyana’s future. As such, an Agricultural sub-committee was established to bring into focus the possibilities of agriculture as an economical tool for development.
“As private sector organizations, we need to earn our place around the table…not only with the government, but as we engage with the opposition, as we engage with the security forces, because we must always walk the road of reason.
“We are not going to take political sides… we will always take the side, which we believe is the side of Guyana and to do that, we have to establish and earn the trust of all the parties involved,” Captain Gouveia said.
Minister of Agriculture, Robert Persaud, noted that the AGM is being held at a time when Guyana’s economy has the ability to build the level of resilience in the face of unexpected troubling crisis of economic environment.
He noted that there have seen pockets of difficulties in some aspects of the national economy and as such it would be fair to conclude that Guyana has been able to manage and survive the waves of financial and other world economic difficulties.
He explained that in the World Bank new country assistance, 2009 – 2012 report, which was issued in May, tells the story of what is being experienced in the national economy.
According to Minister Persaud, the findings in the report states that Guyana has made significant progress in laying the foundation for macro economic stability and higher growth.
He added that the bank’s executive director commended Guyana for its macro economic performance over the past decade and recognized the progress made in improving fiscal discipline.
The World Bank also sees the national economy receiving through a significant contribution from Agriculture, as in 2008 when agricultural contributed 35 per cent of the GDP.
“A significant chunk of growth comes from the Agricultural sector and it underlines the importance of Agriculture to our national economy.
If we do not continue to give agriculture the importance it needs, both private and public, we also can see it having a negative effect on our national economy,” Persaud said.
While the world is dealing with the financial crisis, some countries have also not recovered from the global food crisis. All the driving factors that caused the global food crisis are still with them and according to Persaud; these factors include Climate Change and its effect on production, less availability of land, fresh water supply and what is necessary for food production and the issue of the growing population.
“The FAO is predicting that while food prices have reduced, it would not go back to late 2006, when it was depressed, but overtime, food prices would go up to some 20 per cent… so in terms of the returns in the long term, we all should be assured that the return on the investment would be safe and would be a worthwhile one.”
Meanwhile, Vice Chairman of the PSC, Ramesh Dookhoo, said that last year, much progress was made in realizing some of the goals of the Competitiveness strategy. At the inception meeting of the National competitiveness council chaired by President Bharrat Jagdeo, led to the development of seven priorities were developed.
He explained that these priorities were developed, expanded and auctioned during the year. They dominated the work of the Trade and Investment Committee. These priority areas include access to finance, Corporate Governance, Infrastructure, Lethem Industrial Area, Energy Strategy, Trade transactions, Telecommunications reform, Tax Reform, Competition Commission, Consumer protection legislation, Ecommerce, Redundant laws, Matching grants Initiative and Small Business bureau.
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