The Story Within The Story…Hurricanes fallouts: Striking while the iron is hot

Oct 08, 2017 News

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By Leonard Gildarie
I have in the last few years been paying real close attention to the happenings in the region.

We are far from insulated. It would be foolhardy of us as a country to believe that turmoil in Suriname will have no impact here. Or that the political and economic upheavals in Venezuela will have no impact and are contained only in that country.
Trinidad is facing some serious deficits and foreign currency shortages and is being forced to introduce a number of tax measures (tyres and cars), eerily similar to Guyana, to help turn its economy around.
It will impact here as we are a major market for Trinidad’s goods and services, including its soft drinks and beers, oil, cement, and of course, Caribbean Airlines.
From Venezuela, we lost that market for rice and saw an end to a concessional oil deal that allowed us as a country to use oil imports monies to plug into other areas of the economy.
The past month or so have been devastating for the region. Irma and Maria struck, leaving a swath of devastation from St. Maarten, Barbuda, Dominica, the British Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico to Florida. Billions of US dollars in damage were estimated. Some islands, including overseas territories like St. Maarten, will have to call on its sovereign powers, in Holland, for rescue.
The situation is deeply worrying for CARICOM, the regional bloc which Guyana has helped found and is part of.
In our moments, we must contemplate our fortunes in Guyana and how lucky we are out of the path that these hurricanes move.
Right at home, we have experienced some freak storms in Linden, in Region 8 and in Bath, Berbice. The Region 8 one was deadly; as a home, poorly built, came crashing down, killing a pregnant mom.
The conclusions are that things are not so predictable anymore and forecasters will have to deal with the uncertainties of weather. Save for that, we were largely safe.
It is a fact. Climate change is here to stay. We are paying the price for our abuses and lifestyles and the destruction of our forests.
The good news is that we have intense scrutiny on the operations of our forests and while there are some crooked things going on, it will come out.
This past week, we learnt how magnanimous and neighbourly Guyana could be.
Businesses, including our aircraft operators and contractors, banded together to send water, food, and wood to Dominica and Antigua and other places.
We are a small country now attempting to grab a toehold in at the boardroom of the world.
To see companies like Gaico, a contractor, who donated a ship and Bulkan Timberworks, with containers of dressed lumber, stepping up to the plate, is heartening.
The Karibee rice people, with containers of rice in Dominica for its customers stuck at the ports there, have reportedly released it to suffering citizens.
We have thousands of Guyanese in especially Trinidad, Venezuela, Suriname, St. Maarten and Antigua. There is a significant population in Tortola, in the British Virgin Island, so too in the Florida area.
I could not but think this week of the lives of those whose existence were put to test from a few hours of the most frightening winds known to man. Those storm surges, which send sea water inland, causing intense flooding, have caused buildings to crash down and ripped the lifeblood of tourism from them.
St. Maarten and Dominica for instance will be facing some tough times in its rebuilding.
At the risk of sounding opportunistic, I dare say we do have some opportunities that we have to move quickly on. These islands will need supplies. They will need lumber. They will need piles.
We have rice and sugar. There will be businesses which may opt to look elsewhere to invest.
We have to start sending out our teams of marketing folks, boosted by collaboration from the Ministry of Business and Foreign Affairs.
There is a golden opportunity for our few products and for the cementing of these markets. We have to think medium and long term.
There is nothing wrong with us as a country or as local businesses thinking about expanding our market. We would not be worth our salt if we fail to capitalize.
In all of this, I understand that despite Venezuela ending its rice-for-oil deal with Guyana in 2015 amidst a border controversy, we are still sending rice; via some private arrangements. That is business!
We can’t sit around hoping that the entities like the Guyana Rice Development Board, the Ministry of Business or the embassies abroad will bring us customers for our goods and services.
We have to find ways to grab those markets. We have to do something ourselves.
It will not be easy. China and other Asian countries have all mastered the art of cutting costs in production to ensure their prices are competitive.
We, therefore, have to move away from waiting on scraps from the table and taking a seat at the table.

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