Ministerial team appointed to restructure manufacturing sector

Jul 08, 2017 News

Amidst worry over the country’s manufacturing sector, Government has appointed a ministerial team to engage with stakeholders to help improve the country’s fortunes.
According to Minister of State, Joseph Harmon, on Tuesday last, Finance Minister Winston Jordan presented a paper on the manufacturing sector. Based on the paper, Cabinet discussed the importance of expanding and diversifying the national economy and the importance of the manufacturing and service industry to the process.
“It was thereupon agreed that the Government address the needs of the sector to be restructured,” disclosed Harmon yesterday during the weekly post-Cabinet press briefing.
Cabinet has since appointed a ministerial team comprising the Minister of Finance; Minister of Business, Dominic Gaskin; Minister of Natural Resources, Raphael Trotman, and Minister of Public Infrastructure, David Patterson.
The team will engage the Guyana Manufacturing and Services Association (GMSA) in an effort to stimulate and enhance the performance of the sector, Harmon explained.
It is intended that the engagements will be held thrice annually with established performance indicators to measure its progress and utility.
The engagements will be held in July, October and March, with the information to be used for preparations of the national budget.
“It is also intended that the engagements will be open and candid, and each meeting will see joint statements, and a reaffirmation of ongoing engagements,” Harmon said.
Government is hoping that the engagements will lead to increased performance of the manufacturing and services sector, and resonate in a more diversified economy in the medium and long term.
These engagements will be in addition to ones with the private sector.
The sector has been complaining of difficulties with markets and cost of production, including that of electricity. Weather, poor packaging and labour issues have also been blamed for the sector not performing as it should. Several large companies have blamed especially fuel and electricity as their biggest costs.

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