A new entrepreneurship drive in Guyana
By Dana Niland
CJ Contributor
The government of Guyana has announced plans to promote small business and entrepreneurship opportunities throughout the country.
Guyana Minister of Business and Investment, Dominic Gaskin (above), presented this plan this week at the launch of the Eleventh Berbice Expo and Trade Fair, under the theme of “Fostering national pride, Advancing economic progress.”
“It is time we show national pride in building a stronger Guyana, and in advancing economic progress through entrepreneurship, creativity, innovation and resourcefulness,” said Indranauth Harasingh, Director of Guyana Tourism Authority.
One of the foremost components of the Ministry’s plan is to institute a program that prepares small businesses to access public spending, the government said.
“There is a lot of money,” Gaskin said. “Government is the biggest spender in our economy, and there is potentially [$74 million USD] out there per year that can be accessed by small businesses if a proper program was put in place to actually give effect to the clause in our laws.”
Gaskin also highlighted the ministry’s other objectives, including providing development opportunities for young entrepreneurs and diversifying the region’s economy from the same primary products that have comprised 80-85 percent of their exports for the past 50 years– rice, sugar, gold, and thyme.