Latest update October 18th, 2024 12:59 AM
Jun 10, 2018 Letters
Having just returned from a business trip in the United States, where I observed a large percentage of small medium and large business being very optimistic about the direction in which their business will go in the next 12 months and also very satisfied with the welcoming environment being provided by the cities in which they have set up their business, the complications, hindrances and disadvantages of doing business in Georgetown became more glaring to me upon my return to our capital city.
In Atlanta, Georgia, my first stop, I first visited the new headquarters of Mercedes Benz-USA which only last year relocated its headquarters there, joining other Fortune 500 companies like the Home Depot, United Parcel Service, the Coca Cola Company, Delta Airlines, etc.
Many of the businesses I visited there indicated to me that one of the major motivational factors for moving there had to do with the City Council of Atlanta providing walkable neighborhoods with bike lanes, safe public transit and a mix of good recreational amenities for their employees. I observed the same kind of situation obtaining in other cities that I visited, where companies were setting up their headquarters and branch offices in cities that were safe, well laid out, given tax breaks and incentives, maintained the infrastructure of their cities such as sufficient street lighting, maintenance of roads and bridges, provision of adequate security throughout the entire city but in particular the shopping areas and ensured that good public health practices were maintained.
And this situation is not only obtaining in the USA but also in Africa, Eastern Europe, Central Asia, Latin America, the Middle East, South Asia and South-East Asia, and China
In Georgetown, which is managed by an inept, unprofessional and bungling City Council and Administration, the only new businesses that are being set up here, are the dog food businesses, which are being established at every corner, bottled water and carbonated beverages sold at stop lights, pirated CDs from mobile music carts that roll around the city blasting songs that often contain lewd lyrics, junkies offering to wash your windshields or to sell you wipers, pig rearing in the cemetery and an out of control itinerant vending situation on most of the downtown pavements.
With the steeply increased property rates, shipping container taxes, spiked market stall rents and licences for hairdressers, food handlers etc, the pending return of the draconian parking meter albatross, daily robberies around the municipal markets, the chaotic minibus situation in Georgetown, the mosquito infestation at nights, poor street lighting and blocked drains, surely the Georgetown City Council could not be interested in wooing businesses nor tourists to our capital.
With local government elections fast approaching, one can only hope for the best; however, it seems that the more things change at City Hall, the more they remain the same.
Mark Roopan
October 1st turn off your lights to bring about a change!
Oct 18, 2024
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