Business Ministry to develop Public-Private dialogue to improve competitiveness

Oct 28, 2016 News

In order to facilitate competitive growth within the private sector and the country at large, the Ministry of Business will be developing a Public-Private dialogue body to address competitiveness issues.

Minister of Business Dominic Gaskin with Ministry officials at yesterday’s launch.

This initiative was presented as part of the Ministry’s 2016 to 2020 strategic plan yesterday at the Cara Lodge, Woodbine Room.
Explaining how the initiative will work, subject Minister Dominic Gaskin said that the body will allow his Ministry to engage the private sector as well as the public sector on competiveness issues.
“I can give you an example, for instance, in order to improve our competitiveness we have to improve our infrastructure; Energy infrastructure, transportation infrastructure, telecommunications infrastructure.”
He said all these matters in their own way contribute to a more competitive economy. However, Gaskin said that his Ministry is not responsible for the building of these structures, so to encourage the needed infrastructural development, there needs to be communication between the Ministry of Business and the ministries so responsible.
“It is not in our purview, but because we need to promote it, that is our priority as a Ministry and not necessarily the priority of the other ministries, because their priority is to develop the particular projects rather than to be too concerned about business development.”
According to the Minister, it is necessary to find a mechanism for businesses and investors to be able to have their input into the kind of infrastructure to be developed and have an understanding of what the government is proposing.
The strategic plan was developed with assistance from an international consultant, funded by the United Nations Development Programme. The process began in February of this year and received contributions both from public stakeholders and the private sector.
The Ministry developed a number of strategic objectives influenced by its overarching vision of “increased living standards for all Guyanese in a diverse and green economy.” The intention is to create an environment that will propagate innovation, competitiveness, growth and diverse employment opportunities.
It was highlighted during the presentation that further tapping into the tourism sector can improve competiveness for the country. The Ministry also plans to delve into harnessing renewable energy, noting that Guyana is endowed with a lot of natural resources.
The Ministry’s plan has four main objectives – to increase sustainability of the private sector through implementation of a national investment strategy; to improve doing business; to improve value added production and export through development of a national export strategy; and lastly, to promote small business development by effectively implementing the provisions under the Small Businesses Act.
In order to increase sustainability of the private sector, the Ministry will address critical factors of investment, which are infrastructure, access to finance, workforce skills and logistics. There will also be a “Doing Business Action Plan” to enhance business innovation which will come through the work of the Competition and Consumer Affairs Commission (CCAC).
To transform Guyana into an easy place to do business, the Ministry plans to implement a single window trade transaction, public private dialogue and the provision of statistics for analysis by businesses.
Increasing value added exports will require the design and implementation of a national value added export strategy through collaboration between public and private sectors. To do this, the Ministry will strengthen the use of the nation’s industrial estates and improve quality standards.
To support small businesses, the plan aims to achieve the facilitation of small business access to public and private markets. Additionally, there will be the enabling of procurement by small businesses.

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