Gaskin satisfied with 14 accomplishments in two years

Jan 05, 2018 News

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By Kiana Wilburg
The Ministry of Business is set to roll out a series of transformative measures by 2020 to stimulate the economy. Put that aside, what has it really done besides such preparatory works? What has it accomplished since its creation?
Answering these questions, recently, was Business Minister, Dominic Gaskin. The politician boasted that the entity has been able to accomplish a lot since its existence.

In an interview with Kaieteur News, Gaskin said that the Ministry of Business has placed a lot of emphasis on the institutional strengthening of its agencies since they were operating well below their capacity and not delivering as they were intended to do.
Gaskin said that well-functioning agencies with competent leadership are one of the ways in which he and his Ministry intend to achieve their targets.
The Minister said that the services are delivered through five subvention agencies and five technical departments. He said that these include: the Guyana Office for Investment (Go-Invest); Guyana National Bureau of Standards; Competition and Consumer Affairs Commission; Guyana Tourism Authority Small Business Bureau; the Department of Commerce, Department of Industrial Development; Business strategy and Policy Unit; and the Department of Tourism and Consumer Affairs division.
Gaskin said that these agencies have enabled the Ministry to achieve several things over the last two years.
He said that in the area of access to credit, the Ministry of Business facilitated discussions leading to critical amendments to the Credit Reporting Act in 2016 mandating lending institutions and credit providers to provide credit information to a Credit Bureau. He said that this information will be used to track the credit history of borrowers applying for credit.
Gaskin said that further work has commenced for the development of a secure transaction system in Guyana. Once completed and implemented, the Minister said one of the challenges to accessing credit would be addressed; this is in relation to collateral requirements. He said that the secure transactions system will allow for moveable property to be accepted as collateral.
The Ministry was able to ensure the reduction in processing time for import and export licences from 48 to 24 hrs. He said that Business registration services have been made available in Regions Eight and Nine, bringing relief to business persons operating in those regions who ordinarily would have to travel to the Essequibo Coast to register a business or to renew business registration.
By facilitating the registration within the regions, Gaskin said that the Ministry is encouraging compliance and also paving the way for access to formal financing.
He said that there was greater focus on achieving compliance in the tourism sector leading to the gradual increase in compliance which the Ministry hopes to accelerate in 2018. He said that 14 establishments have been licensed to date.
Gaskin said that the Ministry has been working to build capacity in the tourism sector by providing various levels of training.
These include customer service; food safety and hygiene; city tour guiding among others. Since 2015, Gaskin said that 1,994 industry workers have been provided with training.
The Minister was also proud that he and his team were able to complete the draft of the National Tourism Policy which he hopes to introduce as the national policy after further consultations with key stakeholders.
Gaskin said, “We have provided support to small and micro enterprises. More than 2,448 persons received technical (cosmetology, graphic design, photography, orchard establishment, leather craft, climate smart agriculture among others) and generic (book-keeping, managing a business) training to start businesses or to enter new areas.
Also, over US$421,000 in grant funding was provided to 301 micro enterprises as well as 130 loans to the tune of US$2.1M was disbursed under the Micro and Small Enterprise Development Project (MSED) through a collateral guarantee and interest subsidy scheme.”
The Minister continued, “Construction of two new industrial estates with modern features is also in motion. These projects were inherited but had to be reviewed in order to improve their design. This year, we will be engaging a consulting firm to develop the prospectus and an operations plan for these estates. There is also the development of two business incubator facilities and business incubator programmes to encourage enterprise and entrepreneurship.”
The politician added, “The Ministry is cognizant of the need for youth economic empowerment to drive our economy. It has committed to providing nurturing spaces for start-ups to operate out of and to facilitate small business growth and development.
We anticipate the completion and operation of at least one facility by the third-quarter of 2018. The Ministry also embarked on a pilot in-school entrepreneurship programme that is intended to encourage entrepreneurial ventures at the secondary school level. 100 students from 15 schools taken from the 10 regions are participating in this programme…”
The Minister said that the Small Business Bureau has also executed a youth entrepreneurship programme in collaboration with the Ministry of Public Infrastructure and Education. At least 68 young individuals benefitted from capacity building and grant funding to the tune of US$1500 each. The money is for them to undertake business ventures.
The Minister noted that investment agreements were entered into for 136 projects valued at $187B. As at September 2017, a total of 33 of these projects were operational.
Gaskin said that support was also given for the international accreditation of testing facilities in Guyana to improve service levels. To date, the Guyana National Bureau of Standards has facilitated three laboratories in achieving ISO 15189 accreditation.

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