Investment, infrastructure and information

Apr 02, 2017 APNU Column, Features / Columnists

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(Excerpts from His Excellency Brigadier David Granger’s address
to the Opening Ceremony of the Linden Trade and Investment Fair 2017)

Once upon a time just two years ago, I stood on the bank of the Berbice River at the Village of Calcuni. I gazed in amazement at the slow-moving barges of bauxite and the lofty pontoons of lumber moving northwards to other countries. It looked like an ancient landscape painting from 1916, n0t 2016.
The Region’s reliance on the extractive industries is legendary. The time has come to move forward, however, from digging, cutting and fetching. The time has come to add value and to create new products. The Region needs to unlock and unleash its full potential. It needs to combine its abundant natural resources with its human talent and financial capital….
There has to be change. We cannot expect to become rich by repeating the practices which have kept us poor and hoping that things will improve.

TOWN AND REGION
Linden is the capital town of the Upper Demerara-Berbice Region – a sprawling area of 17,040 km2 which is larger than Jamaica and three times the size of Trinidad and Tobago.
The Region is strategically located. It not only occupies 12 per cent of the country’s landspace, but its borders touch seven other regions. It is the gateway to the hinterland and to Brazil and the rest of the Continent of South America. It straddles the country’s three major rivers – Demerara, Essequibo and Berbice. It is a critical link with the rest of the country.
Linden must leverage its strategic location to attract greater investment and boost business development. Linden must become an example of the role which capital towns must play in the development of regions. Linden must drive the economic development of this sprawling and promising Region.
Linden cannot develop in isolation from the Region in which it is located. Its future and economic fortunes are intertwined with, and can benefit most from, the resources of the entire Region and not merely from the town itself.
The prospects for the development of business, commerce and industry in Linden are linked to the wider development of the region and the country. Linden’s will develop faster, it will progress further and its future will be richer, if it looks beyond the town’s limited boundaries. It must envisage its role on a Regional, rather than a municipal, scale.
Linden must lead. It must show the entire Region the way towards becoming a significant commercial and industrial centre. It must leverage its status as a capital town and as a strategic location of the Region and its stocks of natural resources and its store of entrepreneurial talent.
This Region has several advantages. It possesses its own aerodrome, banks, courts, fire and police stations, NIS office and other utilities and services. The Region is rich in agricultural lands which can contribute to food security. Its forests, flora, savannahs, waterways and wildlife all have the potential for eco-tourism.
This Region can create a strong industrial base. The Region has been the heartland of bauxite mining for a century and has been a beneficiary of an industry that attracted and trained engineers, electricians, geochemists, geologists, machinists, mechanics, surveyors, technicians and welders among a range of skilled personnel.
Linden has entrepreneurs who seek opportunities to establish industries and to develop business. It has skilled and talented residents who can constitute the labour force of new industries and services. Initiatives such as the Linden Enterprise Network (LEN) have the potential to unlock the latent inventiveness of its people.
Linden must fulfil its mission as a capital town by becoming a commercial and services centre. Linden must lead the Region to realise its potential to become the country’s industrial heartland. Linden can drive the development of the Region in three ways:
Information technology: Information and information technology are the windows of business opportunities. Information is vital to ensuring sound business decisions. Businesses need information about markets, products and resources. Information technology is the vehicle for accessing, communicating and storing that information, so as to inform business decisions. Business development in Linden must be informed by information and information technology. Effective communication increases the volume and rapidity of economic transactions. It is supportive of businesses and economic diversification.
Investments: Linden needs increased economic activity to create jobs, generate wealth and reduce poverty. Investments are needed to stimulate this increased economic activity. The Linden Trade and Investment Fair is an opportunity for Linden to showcase the investment potential and opportunities. It is a chance for existing business in Linden to partner with other companies outside of this region, so as to secure greater opportunities. It is an opportunity to attract the huge Linden diaspora in North America to invest its financial capital and its human talent. This Fair can sell the Region as an attractive destination for investment.
Incentives contribute to an enabling environment for investment. Your government is willing to examine the introduction of an incentive regime to stimulate specific types of economic activity to this region in accordance with its Plan of Action for Regional Development (PARD) – one which aims to add value to the region’s natural resources and which includes the manufacturing, ec0- tourism and renewable energy generation sectors.
Investment in micro- and small enterprises is needed to develop this Region’s commercial, industrial and services sector. Your government recognises the potential of micro- and small enterprises, including cottage industries, in reducing employment and in lifting people out of poverty. It is for this reason that we have resurrected the Linden Enterprise Network.

INFRASTRUCTURE:
The inadequacies of infrastructure are impediments to increasing production. Infrastructure can unlock the economic potential of individuals and groups with society. It opens previously inaccessible resources for exploitation. Infrastructure correlates positively with increased competitiveness. It reduces the cost and time of getting goods from farms and industries to markets. Your government would like to see the improvement of the East-West corridor – from Kwakwani to Ituni, Linden, Mabura and, eventually all the way to Lethem.
These factors – information, investment and infrastructure – form the bases on which to build the Region’s development. Linden’s business sector must lead the process of developing the economy of the entire region.

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