Georgetown: Tourism has the capacity to be the largest contributor to GDP as well as the largest source of employment for Guyanese, according to Minister in charge of the sector Mohamed Irfaan Ali.
This was disclosed at the 11th National Competitiveness Council (NCC) held on Thursday February 13th 2014 at the Office of the President at 11 am.
The NCC is the body that oversees implementation of Guyana’s National Competitiveness Strategy (NCS) and is the highest level public-private dialogue body in the nation. It is chaired by His Excellency President Donald Ramotar and is comprised of senior Ministers and officials of the Government and senior representatives of the Private Sector.
The meeting was statutorily convened as the first quarterly meeting of 2014 but also included a special agenda item. Following the National Economic Forum (NEF) held in August 2013, the Chairpersons of the ten (10) thematic working groups were invited to make presentations to the NCC based on the recommendations developed by their respective groups. The thematic groups consisted of members of the Government, Private Sector, the Parliamentary Opposition and other stakeholders who met regularly during the period June – August 2013 in preparation for the Forum in order to develop presentations focusing on policy recommendations for priority consideration by government regarding the ten (10) major sectoral areas.
The invited presenters included a mixture of both Government and Private Sector representatives. On the Government side presenters included Mr. Tarachand Balgobin, Head Project Cycle Management Division, Ministry of Finance (Infrastructure), Professor Suresh Narine, Director, Institute of Applied Science and Technology (Energy) and Professor Jacob Opadeyi, Vice Chancellor, University of Guyana, (Human Resources). Presenters from the Private Sector included Mr. Ramesh Dookhoo, Executive Member, Private Sector Commission, (Non-Caribbean Trade), Mr. Michael Correia , Executive Member, Private Sector Commission, (Aviation) and Cpt. Gerry Gouveia (Tourism).
In his presentation on Non-Caribbean Trade, Mr. Dookhoo noted that the small size of Guyana’s domestic economy and the importance of trade as a major source of economic growth and employment make Trade a critical policy area. Mr. Dookhoo outlined some of the challenges in the sector including weak public-private dialogue on international trade negotiations, significant non-tariff barriers from trade partners, poor infrastructure, outdated import/export procedures and weak institutional structures. Among the recommendations highlighted were the strengthening of trade agreements, introduction of the Single Window System, a certification laboratory for Sanitary and Phyto-Sanitary (SPS) standards, improved monitoring of Ports for illegal drugs, investments in infrastructure, particularly the road to Lethem and the deep water harbor, re-engineering of Go-Invest and challenging Consulates and Embassies/High Commissions overseas to identify opportunities for trade.
Cpt. Gerry Gouveia’s presentation on Tourism highlighted several areas that priority should be given to including marketing, accessibility, nation branding, product development, pricing and safety and security. He added that since the NEF there has been a lot of work done in this area by the Ministry of Tourism, Industry and Commerce (MINTIC) and the Tourism & Hospitality Association of Guyana (THAG) particularly in the areas of accessibility to Guyana and nation branding.
The Minister of MINTIC, the Mohamed Irfaan Ali, stressed the fact that Tourism has the capacity to be the largest contributor to GDP as well as the largest source of employment for Guyanese. He added that Tourism cross-cuts every other sector and that all Guyanese need to embrace tourism as a source of national pride and patriotism. He added that Government is fully supportive of the Tourism Sector and that work will begin shortly on state of the art, internationally accredited Hospitality Institute at the University of Guyana where individuals from across the world can access high quality training in order to launch careers in the service and hospitality sector. He also challenged the Private Sector to come together and offer package deals and all-inclusive type events which would simultaneously benefit the local Hotel, Airline and Entertainment sectors.
Professor Jacob Opadeyi highlighted some of the challenges to Human Resources Development including the low level of adult literacy and numeracy , inadequate levels of performance levels in STEM subjects (Science, Technology, English language and Mathematics), undertrained teachers and trainers and low internet and IT penetration due to high costs. He outlined some of the proposed initiatives which included establishment of a National Education Planning Secretariat, support for online and distance education programmes, a strategic IT penetration programme, resuscitation of the National Science Council, increasing the minimum qualification for a high school teacher to be a first degree and inclusion of more foreign languages and exchange programmes in schools, particularly in Spanish and Portuguese. He added that the University of Guyana (UG) plans to launch four (4) online degree programmes by March 2014 so that prospective students do not have to physically attend the University. He added that this would be particularly beneficial for prospective student who live far away from the two established UG campuses.
Professor Suresh Narine in his presentation on Energy noted that all of the issues related to energy are well documented in the public domain. These included high costs for energy and the need to develop alternative sources of power generation. He added that the major recommendation of his group was the need for a Task Force set up by H.E President Ramotar for the purpose of drafting a National Energy Policy. He suggested that the Task Force should include a wide cross-section of members from the Government, Private Sector, Opposition, Academia, the Guyana Energy Agency and the Office of the Prime Minister.
Mr. Tarachand Balgobin presented on Infrastructure and noted that his group outlined urgent short term actions (within 2 years) and longer term actions (10 years). The key short term actions included upgrading of the Soesdyke/Linden Highway, the Bartica/Issano Road, the East Bank Essequibo Road and the Parika Backdam Road, which is to benefit from a Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) Grant. The longer term actions include the Kurupukari/Mora Road, paving of the Linden/Lethem road, developing and alternative road between the East Coast and West Coast of Demerara (WCD), reconstruction of the Demerara Harbor Bridge, dredging of the Demerara River, establishment of a container terminal on the WCD and a deep water harbor.
Michael Correia presented the report of the Aviation group. Their key recommendation was the drafting of a National Aviation Policy which should address inter alia airspace, the regulatory framework, market access for foreign carriers, efficient and user-friendly airports, international safety standards and regulations governing fuel and lubricants and systems for crisis and disaster management, including search and rescue.
H.E President Ramotar empowered the Aviation group to continue their work by drafting the policy for review and adoption by Cabinet. He further lauded all groups for the work done and proposed that all recommendations by the thematic working groups be adopted across the board and that the responsibility for monitoring and implementation of these policies will rest with the National Competitiveness Strategy Steering Committee chaired by Minister Ali. This motion was unanimously agreed upon and carried by the NCC.
On the conclusion of the presentations under the substantive agenda Minister Ali provided an update on a proposal by the Shipping Association of Guyana (SAG), for the dredging of the Demerara River. The Minister advised that a local firm, GAICO, has offered to undertake the project, including the financing of all the capital infrastructure and equipment needed. He further reported that a presentation was done on Wednesday February 12th 2014 by GUYCO to a high level team of Government and Private Sector officials. H.E President Ramotar tasked Mr. Dookhoo and Mr. Balgobin with preparing a presentation for Cabinet based on the GUYCO presentation.
In closing, Minister Ali advised that the Lethem Authority had been formalized by the President and will be officially launched shortly.
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