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GCCI’s members expecting positive growth this year
Most members of the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI) are optimistic that this year their businesses would record positive growth. This is not surprising, since 89 percent rated their business activities as strong or very strong in 2011.
However, some members expect their business conditions to remain unchanged for 2012.
This is according to GCCI’s President, Clinton Urling, who was updating the media about the findings of its first Attitudinal Survey. The survey aimed to draw out how businesses fared last year, as well as, the key external factors shaping business attitudes about the future.
The survey also revealed that 88 percent of the 57 respondents saw an increase in the financial cost of doing business in Guyana last year. “An overwhelming majority (96 percent) expects this trend to continue,” he said.
While a lot of persons complained of being unemployed, many GCCI’s members ranked finding and retaining good employees as their top concern.
Urling disclosed that more than two-thirds of the respondents expect staff turnover to stay static this year while more than one-fourth is confident that staff turnover would increase.
Meanwhile, 56 percent of the respondents said that high tax rates were an obstacle to their operations. High cost and unreliability of the power grid for electricity generation also affected businesses last year.
The survey also revealed that businesses continued to express confidence in the banking sector last year since many members sought and secured financing from commercial banks. The financing was taken for various reasons including, working capital, expanding businesses, purchasing land and building, and acquiring capital equipment.
According to Urling, “Three out of every five respondents positively viewed Government’s attitude toward business, with 51 percent characterizing it as moderately supportive, and nine percent as very supportive.”
“State agencies also were cited frequently as being obstacles to business success, with inefficient government bureaucracy and customs inefficiency registering 29 percent and 27 percent response rates respectively,” he said.
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