A tall order for Minister of Investment and Business

May 25, 2015 Letters

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Dear Editor,
I wish through your medium to address the Honourable Minister Dominic Gaskin. We welcome your appointment and wish you well and nothing but success.
Unfortunately, you are stepping into an arena that needs to be resurrected and requires a postmortem. The deceased have long been buried and the family members are at a lost on how to survive with no plans of their own.
This economy and Private Sector in Guyana are dead and all industries are either totally failed or failing. Do not rely on the Private Sector to resurrect the economy. They cannot do it. Our Private Sector is accustomed to easy money with no sweat by merely aligning themselves to the PPP government and funny money friends for almost 22 years.
Yes, they were a sellout and heavily compromised bunch with no moral compass to challenge the wrongs of the former government and all the wrongs they committed for 23 years. You will have to come up with your ideas and plans in order to lead the business growth in this country out of the abyss. The Private Sector actors have survived the past two decades of the PPP government by being stooges and puppets of the government.
Most of the Private Sector actors have learned to adapt in order to survive, so they know nothing other than government handouts which led to high kickbacks for the former government officials, smuggling, under invoicing, underhand deals, cocaine and money laundering.
They are bankrupt of ideas and lack the vision to lead the country forward out of the cesspit they have nurtured based on their own selfish attitudes and greed. This is evident based on where you see our economy today. The Private Sector couldn’t even convince the government to keep the city clean and yet preached investment and development.
I called them actors because they acted for 23 years and will be prepared to act again and do whatever it is to survive. The real Private Sector members packed up and departed our shores during the 23 years and the other decent ones were going to do so if the coalition lost the elections. These are the real Private Sector men you should involve in your discussions to contribute and maybe you can win a few back to re-invest in Guyana.
You will have to rebuild confidence in the tattered and fake economy and encourage overseas investment in Guyana. This is a tall order but not impossible, since you will have to ensure the country is dealing with reducing crime, eradicating the cocaine business and money laundering, not forgetting the need for total transparency.
The sad part about the business sector in Guyana is when you bring them forth for a meeting, you will be staring at former PPP cronies who sucked the treasury dry in collaboration with their corrupt government friends, others whose names have been called in numerous US courts linked to illegal activities and friends of the many perpetrators incarcerated in the USA.
You must break away from the local business sector actors and develop your own network of successful, local ‘clean’ entrepreneurs with access and contacts around the world. It is the only hope for Guyana. You must bring in new money. Beware of some of the foreign investors, they are predatory, and pay big bribes to pave their way pre and post arrival with no social interest in contributing to society. The western investors are demanding with calls for good governance, stability, low crime, equality, etc. and do not pay bribes to part with their monies but drive long term deliverables.
I would recommend a few major projects such as hydro for cheaper electricity at the right place only after we do a proper study. Our electricity costs are manufacturing prohibitive.
Another project is the road to Brazil, which comes at a time when the Brazilian economy is contracting. However, don’t worry about the Brazilian economy, they will rebound. A national airline for Guyana is in order and badly needed. The bridge linking Guyana to Suriname is another good one. Low cost, truly high speed internet service for all will be ideal. A local investment bank to drive down interest rates and offer better loan terms for local entrepreneurs. Agricultural projects around the hinterland to encourage large scale farming for local and international consumption.
Long term strategies must lead to partnering with successful Chambers of Commerce around the world, holding workshops for the local entrepreneurs eyeing the oil and gas industry but don’t let them think oil production is immediate since we are many years away from this phase.
I must reiterate my earlier plea that you will get no quality investors to take any risks in Guyana unless the government fixes the crime situation, levels the playing field for all by stamping out the lucrative cocaine trade in Guyana and eradicating the money laundering which is now normal business in Guyana. The social ills of our society must be tackled as well to ensure the youth are not in perpetual hopelessness and despair.
Your assumption of this role is at a critical time when the cocaine trade and money laundering will be eradicated by the new government as promised by them. This we all welcome after 23 years and hope the coalition delivers to rid us of this evil curse. However, it means you have to work hard to bring hard currency to our shores to replace the cocaine and funny money being sucked out of the economy. A necessity because we must replace the ‘non- traditional’ businesses with ‘traditional’ ones, willing to take risks and generate foreign exchange.
Minister, you have a tough road ahead and all you have to do is look what the former Ministers did and don’t do the same to be a success. Please remember the former ministers left us with over 40% youth unemployment and high crime while preaching growth in our economy. The math doesn’t add up and I know why, non-traditional businesses have been the order of the day for the past 23 years.
I must end by saying that the Private Sector does have a few decent hardworking men and women remaining who are non-politically exposed and heavily compromised.
Balram Bhagwandin

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