We need SME companies

May 28, 2020 Letters

DEAR EDITOR,

Kaieteur News Editorial “Resist, rethink and rebuild these deals with foreign exploiters” does highlight the problems Guyanese face when dealing with foreign companies.
Foreign companies (be they Americans, Canadians, British, Russians, Indians, Chinese) come to Guyana to make a profit. The problem arises when Guyanese have little or nothing to show for the resources shipped out.
I am for foreign companies coming to Guyana as they do bring in investment and skills which Guyana is in dire need of.
At the same time, we need to learn from India. The people of my ancestors (Indians) were exploited by foreign companies leading to domination by foreigners…namely The British.
Yet, we need to be cognizant of the fact that Guyanese are not into manufacturing in a big way so we would need foreign help to develop the sector. We simply do not have the knowhow to build cars, ships, airplanes, computers, cell phones, etc.
We struggle with managing GPL and GWI to provide electricity and water for our people…it is not a money issue…it is a skills issue.
We rely heavily upon politicians who do not have a clue about what it will take to develop Guyana.
We do need foreign companies to teach us how to do things. At the same time, we do not want to be dominated by foreigners.
The type of foreign investors, which we need in Guyana is not big foreign companies that are used to getting their own way in Third World Countries. We need SME companies (small to medium size enterprises) which will not be able to push around our politicians.
At the same time, we need to reduce taxation (personal taxation and corporate taxation) so that Guyanese companies are more competitive.

Yours faithfully,
Sean Ori