At investment conference… Finance Minister chides organisers for over-emphasising governance, corruption Written by Saieed Khalil Friday, 28 June 2013 23:31 MINISTER of Finance, Dr. Ashni Singh, yesterday, chided organisers of the Guyana Investment Conference for their over-emphasis on security, governance and corruption woes. Minister of Finance, Dr. Ashni Singh Addressing the forum at the Guyana International Conference Centre, Lilliendaal, East Coast Demerara, he said,“While crime and corruption are important aspects of the business environment, they are, by no means, the only aspects of the business environment.” Singh cautioned that the views of investors must be weighed more heavily than those of bureaucrats and stated, “The real authorities in the business environment are the investors who, every day, are making business decisions and that is where we really need to look to ascertain what the prerequisites are that a sophisticated investor looks for.” Continuing, he said,“If you ask them (investors) to list their main impediments to their growth or, indeed, in the case of potential investors, their potential entry into Guyana, I rather suspect that prominent amongst the list would be the cost of energy.” Singh pointed out that manufacturers cannot run uninterrupted manufacturing lines if power supply is not reliable, adding that businesses have to make capital provision for expensive back-up electricity generators. Even as investors have cited the cost of energy as being prohibitively high and an impediment to expansion as well as entry, he observed that there is not a single speaking slot set aside on the programme for a presentation on energy. Second round The Minister said,“I do not dismiss crime and security as unimportant,” but he went on to suggest that, when the organisers stage a second round of the Guyana Investment Conference, the scope of its focus should be broadened to include the constraints imposed by the high cost of energy, as well as that for bandwidth. Mentioning that the business processes outsourcing industry is one of the fastest growing sectors of the economy, Singh noted that they will say the most significant impediment to their growth is Internet bandwidth and affordable, reliable connectivity is critical to their operations. He said Guyana’s trainable and fairly educated workforce, which speaks neutrally accented English, and its location in the same time zone as the United States East Coast, position the country to compete with other business processes outsourcing hubs such as Bangalore (India) or the Philippines. Singh argued,“Were the cost of bandwidth in Guyana to be comparable with the cost of bandwidth in these other jurisdictions, tens of thousands of jobs could be created by international investment dollars coming into Guyana, so would be the result of the reduction of the cost of bandwidth.” He mentioned that, as with the cost of energy, even as the business process outsourcing sector grows to become one of the biggest contributors to job creation, the cost of bandwidth was not merited for inclusion on the forum’s agenda. Paid dividends Despite the qualms about corruption, he said, though, that the measures taken to improve the institutional, legislative and macro-economic environment have paid dividends since foreign and local investors continue to invest in the country. Referring to the presence of foreign corporations, Guyana Goldfields, First Bauxite Corporation, CGX, Reunion Manganese, all companies which, he said, had, at the peak of mineral prices, a market capitalisation in excess of Cdn$2billion. He said investors here had made a “conscious, deliberate decision, having assessed the investment environment and opportunities in Guyana.” Local investors with small and medium-size enterprises, too, continue to expand their investments in Guyana, Singh acknowledged, disclosing that, over the last year, thousands of investors had accessed funding through the commercial banks and micro-financing institutions. The Guyana Investment Conference, organised by the High Commissioner of Canada to Guyana, Mr. David Devine, in collaboration with other stakeholders, concluded yesterday.
Posted on: Sat, 29 Jun 2013 16:17:42 +0000
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