guyanabusinessjournal

Program 

Speakers:

• Florence Alexi Larose, Sustainable Development, Community Building, Rural Development and Indigenous Peoples
• Roger Hosein, Professor, UWI, St. Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago
• David Lewis, Vice President, Manchester Trade Ltd. Inc. & Co-Chair, Caribbean Policy Consortium
• Terrence Blackman, Founder, Guyana Business Journal

Quotations:

Florence Alexi Larose, Sustainable Development, Community Building, Rural Development and Indigenous Peoples

• “On the world stage we’re  seen as a rising economy, but within the country, for the people, it is a struggle, due to the rising cost of living and our inability to have our income suffice to match this emerging economy. And that is the reality of the situation.”
• “We cannot expect,  someone to understand or see a vision the same that we are seeing it,  if their reality is limited to a certain geographic space, while ours is much wider. Experience and exposure shape our  thinking and projection.”
• “We are at a point where thinking outside of the box is necessary. We have to think outside of the box if we’re going to move Guyana forward as a whole. Or as equitably as we can go.”
  
  Roger Hosein, Professor, UWI, St. Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago

• “I think the Guyanese people, policy makers, need to walk a little more gently and little more softly. Yes, there is a lot of money circulating, but the real effective exchange rate. . . is showing distinct sighs of appreciating.”
• “I think the time has come where we need to go another step further. We need to look at the structure of production, the structure of employment. We need to look at the structure of trade. We need to see where the competitive advantage areas lie. We need to see how they are changing with time. We need to see where the important exports opportunities reside.”
• “Unless we take a deep dive, technical approach to understanding the 2024 facts mirrored against 2019, pre-boom, and plan for the next 16 years or there about. . . the overflow of energy revenues could give results that are not optimal.”

 David Lewis, Vice President, Manchester Trade Ltd. Inc. & Co-Chair, Caribbean Policy Consortium

• “Private sector companies in Guyana, foreign investors in Guyana, countries that are joining in Guyana all over the place, presidents visiting, everybody looking to make Guyana the future of this hemisphere. . . they are all very concerned because they cannot control what you will be doing in Guyana, but they are going to be there so they are affected.”
• “In the end, all the energy wealth in the world means nothing if it’s not translated into improved welfare and development for the Guyanese people who own that wealth.” 

 Terrence Blackman, Founder, Guyana Business Journal

• “We want to foster a nation that is stronger and more inclusive, and prosperous for all.”
• “The strong point is, optimizing what we have currently so as not to overinvest and splurge and spend in a way that is unsustainable. In a way that leaves us not further ahead when this windfall opportunity has left again.”

Program 

Speakers:

• Samuel Braithewaite, Lecturer, Department of Economics, UWI Mona
• Thomas Singh, Director of the GREEN Institute & Senior Lecturer, Dept. of Economics, University of Guyana
• Collin Constantine, Assistant Professor and Official Fellow of Economics at Girton College, Cambridge
• Bright Simons, Founder of mPedigree and Vice President at IMANI Africa
• Justin Ram, CEO, Justin Ram Advisory Associates
• Anthony Bryan, CPC Co-Chair & Fellow, Senior Fellow, Institute of International Relations, UWI
• Terrence Blackman, Founder, Guyana Business Journal

Quotations:

Samuel Braithewaite, Lecturer, Department of Economics, UWI Mona

• “When I think of fiscal policy in Guyana, my mind turns to institutions…To avoid the resource curse, we have to be very careful with regards how we deal with institutions, how we deal with the rules of the game.”
• “When we talk about economic growth and GDP and so on, economics is about people. If you’re unable to show how all these lofty growth rates are contributing to an improvement in people’s lives, then you’re not doing right by them.”

Thomas Singh, Director of the GREEN Institute & Senior Lecturer, Dept. of Economics, University of Guyana

• “The question arises, ‘What are our sources of sustainable growth?’ What if our oil disappears? Would we have the human capital to replace that oil? Have we been investing in technology?”
• “Guyana has been running an overall balance payments deficit…It is probably one of the reasons why we aren’t noticing an increase in the Bank of Guyana net foreign assets because [the Bank of Guyana] has to be using up international reserves to meet the deficit.”

 Collin Constantine, Assistant Professor and Official Fellow of Economics at Girton College, Cambridge

• “If we want to understand the fiscal position of any government with oil discovery, we need to look at the non-oil primary balance as a share of non-oil GDP.”
• “There are well-known institutional constraints in countries like Guyana. Ultimately, whether we have oil wealth or not, fiscal policy should aim for neutrality on banks’ diversification ratio, the change in government deposit balance at the central bank or the monetary base,  the foreign exchange market, and Central Bank independence (end Bank of Guyana financing of the deficit).”

 Bright Simons, Founder and President of mPedigree

• “I subscribe to the “institutional imagination” viewpoint. There are so many different ways a society like Guyana can organize its natural resources, including petroleum. No policy or regime is cast in stone as far as best practice is concerned. Regardless of development level, all countries grapple with this heterogeneity of best practices. Guyana needs to have the moral and intellectual courage to interweave the best ideas from all over to create its own best-fitting, optimal vision.”
• “You [Guyana] are already fighting over cost accounting issues, just a few years after the onset of first oil. That already tells me that there is massive room in Guyana to learn from us, peer countries near and far, who have been dealing with this “cost oil” and “profit oil” issue for eons around the world. We have tremendous experience with these issues – from base erosion and cost inflation to profit shifting and value attrition, name it, we have seen it all.”

Justin Ram, CEO, Justin Ram Advisory Associates

• “Guyana’s economy is primarily driven by the rapidly growing mining and quarrying sector…Specifically, the oil and gas sector since the discovery of substantial oil reserves offshore Guyana in 2015 and 2018.”
• “In all other types of economic activities, we find most value added is distributed to workers as wages and to owners as profits. However, when it comes to oil and gas distribution of rents within the country, those rents go first to the government who will then need to redistribute them through public spending.”
• “Guyana is in urgent need of intensive investment in public infrastructure, particularly in areas such as roads, electricity and clean water. I think with the oil and gas resources, this can be a way for the government to spend those in a way that provides efficiency and helps facilitate economic activity in other sectors.”
• “We need to focus on how we drive sustainable development through the efficient use of the revenues coming from the depletion of oil and gas resources so that we maintain, and indeed grow the country’s capital base.” Investing in human capital is critical, i.e., education and health investment, combined with a competitive economy so that individuals can turn their investment into tangible rewards (sustainable income, consumption).”

 Anthony Bryan, CPC Co-Chair & Fellow, Senior Fellow, Institute of International Relations, UWI

• “Guyana is at a crossroads at this point. This is really the crux of how Guyana goes ahead.”
• “Accelerated fiscal expenditure will increase domestic inflationary practices, potentially creating a great deal of stress within the Guyanese environment and internationally.”
• “Guyana can learn from the mistakes, or the successes, from others that went before.”

 Terrence Blackman, Founder, Guyana Business Journal

• “We want to improve economic, social and security conditions, creating more equitable and diverse opportunities for all Guyanese. And ensure a harmonious, resilient and flourishing Guyana where every citizen benefits from its economic growth – regardless of background or beliefs.”
• “In this era of significant economic transformation, particularly in the burgeoning oil and gas sector, Guyana stands at a really crucial juncture. The dynamics of fiscal policy within this evolving landscape present profound challenges and remarkable opportunities.”
• “You have these [oil and gas] rents go to the government. The government has to redistribute them, but it has to redistribute them in an economically sound, stable, sustainable manner. And how do you do that? That’s the question we are trying to answer.”

Program 

Speakers:

• Rosalinda Rasul, Head of Diaspora Unit Ministry of Foreign Affairs & International Cooperation Guyana
• Joel Bhagwandin, Director, SphereX Professional Services | Commissioner, Public Procurement Commission, Guyana
• Stacey Mollison, President/CEO Libra Management Group
• Patricia Francis, Chairperson of Trade Facilitation Task Force and former Executive Director ITC
• David Lewis, Vice President, Manchester Trade Ltd. Inc. & Co-Chair, Caribbean Policy Consortium
• Terrence Blackman, Founder, Guyana Business Journal

Quotations:

 David Lewis, Vice President, Manchester Trade Ltd. Inc. & Co-Chair, Caribbean Policy Consortium

• “We need to start looking at the investment climate and economy in Guyana, to a certain degree, beyond oil and gas…and the fact of really preparing the country for growth in a variety of sectors.”
• “The problem with setting up business and setting up financing and bank accounts in Guyana remains extraordinary. We are beginning to see it as a disincentive, particularly for small companies and for the Diaspora coming in trying to set that up as a key requirement to be a bonafide business there.”
• “This is work in progress. You’re building a brand-new country, from where it was before.”

 Terrence Blackman, Founder, Guyana Business Journal

• “Many observers can find places for criticism, but if you take this view of what’s happening in Guyana in the broad sense, these macroeconomic fundamentals seem to be in place to make it a very attractive destination.”
• “We are often – in our approach to this business of Diaspora engagement, the business of investor relations with Guyana – prone to a kind of conflictual relationship. If we aim for partnership, then this is not an unreasonable way to pursue this.”

 Rosalinda Rasul, Head of Diaspora Unit Ministry of Foreign Affairs & International Cooperation Guyana

• “When you talk about Guyana having a very small population and then it’s taking off at a massive growth rate, you will need a lot of skills. We can choose to run after projects or initiatives that is not exactly what would have a great impact on the country, or we can choose to engage the Diaspora in a way that will really help to reenergize the country and take it where it needs to go.”
• “In 2023, we started a conversation at the national level with private sector and public sector stakeholders on the shortages of skills in the country…that ended with the commitment to form a manpower unit which will be managed by the Ministry of Labor that will look into the shortages and labor needs of the country.”
• “All of these companies are coming to the [Diaspora] Unit basically to say that ‘We have positions. There are some that we can’t find the skills in Guyana, we would like to utilize the services of the Unit to reach into the global Diaspora.’”

 Joel Bhagwandin, Director, SphereX Professional Services | Commissioner, Public Procurement Commission, Guyana

• “International investors are always concerned primarily with political risks in the market in which they are contemplating to invest. Now, we are not only looking at geopolitical risk at a domestic level, but broad geopolitical developments.”
• “Our development journey that is being ramped up, that is being accelerated at a very rapid pace today, it started three decades ago. It started at a time where we had tremendous economic and political challenges. There was a time when we were a bankrupt economy.”
• “The main challenge as of now, in terms of investors and the private sector, is the skills deficit that we have, and it is a two-fold challenge. One, we have a skills deficit, a shortage of skills we need in all the sectors. Two, we have a skills mismatch, meaning that we have people actively looking for work, but of the jobs that are available, they don’t have the skills and competencies to match that.”

 Stacey Mollison, President/CEO Libra Management Group

• “Our goal is to continue to engage people. Now we’re looking at not just the Guyanese Diaspora, but how do we continue to build and grow this. You start with awareness, you come in-country, you connect with the stakeholders and then you help those people who are serious about engagement.”
• “It’s not just about our contemporaries, but we have to engage the young people because they bring innovation and ideas and a whole way of viewing coming into Guyana as second generation…I don’t think we do a good enough job of engaging the Millennial and Gen X population.”

 Patricia Francis, Chairperson of Trade Facilitation Task Force and former Executive Director ITC

• “The IMF has just come out with their report on Guyana and are indicating that they should probably have growth of about 26.6% this year…Of that, they are seeing that about 6.6% will be from the non-oil and gas domestic sector.”
• “Guyana has not really been doing very well when you look at the indicators by the World Bank, looking at the business environment. There seem to be still confusion with respect to multiple ministries that are overlapping in terms of regulatory responsibilities, and investors report they receive confusing messages from various officials. Clarifying this and the whole business of building institutions is critical and important.”