H.E. Bharrat Jagdeo’s speech at opening of GUYEXPO 2006

Colleagues on stage, members of the Cabinet, members of Parliament, Chief of Staff, distinguished guests from abroad, ladies and gentlemen.

First of all, I wish to thank all of you for being here on this very important occasion which has become an annual place of pilgrimage to the excellence of what Guyana has to offer and I want to thank all the exhibitors who are here for their persistence and for their growth in their products, the quality of the products as well as their expansion which we’ve seen over the years and their persistence in a country that is evolving. I also wish to thank the organizers of this event, Minister Manzoor Nadir who was here before and the current team headed by Mr. Manniram Prashad. This year it was particularly difficult because the planning period was short. We had National and Regional Elections; therefore, much attention could not have been paid to other issues. And I’m very pleased to see from my little interaction so far the quality of organization here tonight, and I want to thank them profoundly.

A year ago when I addressed you there was grave concern, of ordinary citizens, the private sector and even the political spectra. Many people were worried that we’d be unable to hold a national obligation, a constitutional requirement, that is, our national and general elections in a peaceful and timely manner. I said at that time we did not have a choice. We had to hold these elections, there should be no postponement, we had to hold them in a timely manner and I was profoundly optimistic that because of the hard work of many people across the political spectrum in this country and among our security forces that those elections would have been peaceful and I’m very pleased that our people did not disappoint. We Guyanese know how to rise to the occasion and I think it was a very proud moment for all of Guyana because we broke a cycle of violence associated with our elections and I hope that in the future that we can work together, all the political leaders of this country, to ensure that at elections time our people do not become apprehensive and fearful- that it would become the routine of our democracy.

I also spoke at that time when I addressed you last year about the energy that is sapped by a spiral political debate that was going on and sometimes continues - that is the ideological debate of what kind of country we are trying to build. And I said to you that in all the serious quarters among political parties I was saying too that we know where we want to go and that the private sector plays an important role in that regard. And therefore, our commitment-the commitment and the policy of this country should not be questioned.

But I think that many people who cannot contribute meaningfully to the debate they enter into this spiral political debate as to what we are building socialism, capitalism, it’s all spiral, and it saps the energy out of many of our people and I hope that we can forget all of that and we can work hard to build this country and the key things that we want in this country, without the name-calling, without the ideological branding, is a vibrant economy, a prosperous country in which our private sector is doing well and we can meet the needs of our people-all the needs of our people-so that they can live a good and healthy life.

So I hope that over the next five years we would not be side-tracked by that debate but we’d be very focused on the implementation of the programme that I’ve outlined several times since we have won the elections, but most comprehensively, in my address to the inaugural sitting of the National Assembly where I took time to outline in great detail, some of the broad areas that my government would be focused on over the next five years, and I hope that all of us will try to work together with that programme because it allows opportunities for broad involvement, including Opposition involvement.

I identified four challenges the last time we were here and I want to say to you over the past month and a half after the elections - we did not enter into a honeymoon period-we have been busy at work trying to give flesh and to map out the projects and the policies and the programmes that will give effect to our broad strategy and our national plan for the next five years and hopefully accomplish the vision that we’ve outlined.

And therefore, some of the things that I’ve identified as crucial to the development of a competitive private sector the last time I spoke here, we have advanced the agenda in these areas too. The first thing that I mentioned was the need for the diversification of our energy supply because energy-reliable energy and cheap energy-is important for a competitive private sector. Since that time we’ve moved forward significantly. The Skeldon factory is moving forward and they will bring, ahead of time, some of the installations (that the power capacity that they’re putting in place there) into the grid. But we’ve also gone forward and we’ve signed a MOU with a firm that will hopefully, if everything goes well, working together with that firm, we may be able to see financial closure on a hydropower plant in Guyana sometime by August next year, to start the construction. When I spoke the last time I said these things take time and I had given the country some four to five years to put that project together, but I’m very pleased that we have gone much faster than we had anticipated and we hope that this will become a reality that in the four, five years that I set aside to start the project, that in those years we can actually have hydro-power supplying all of our electricity needs in this country.

The second challenge that I identified was the need for reliable competitive telecommunication, not just to improve our competitiveness abroad but as a platform for introducing a whole range of new IT related services that would create thousands of jobs. Well, we’re working on that and I’m saying to you today that we’ve had discussions with the main telecom operator in this country and we are moving inexorably towards bringing competition in the telecommunication sector. I do hope that given the importance of all of this that the Private Sector Commission would at some time see it fit too, Mr. Correia, to give support to this venture, because I know that that company is a member of that body and that we will receive the support of all the Parties in Parliament when we put this matter to the Parliament if it comes to that, but we have to do it.

In the meantime, we have signed a MOU with the largest cell-operator in the Caribbean and early next year they should start to deliver services in the cellular area and hopefully that competition will improve not just the price but the quality of services here. So, since the last time we spoke we’ve been working.

In relation to the third challenge I had outlined at that time to integrate this economy seamlessly into the Single Market and Economy ( Caricom) and in spite of the grave misgivings and the doomsday scenario painted by some of the captains of the private sector, our country is seamlessly integrating into the CSME and it will do so and I see many opportunities that will flow to the Guyanese business community and to our people from the CSME and we have to keep moving forwards in this area.

We also spoke about attracting more investment by supporting change and making our country more competitive. We are doing this. At the end of this month I will be attending a conference for investors that Prime Minister Blair is hosting in London and we have spoken to all of our missions and we have had several engagements with the Cabinet and since the elections they have met several investors here, so I want you to know that the areas that we identified the last time we just didn’t speak about them as broad areas, but work is going on, the Government is busy working with its partners to deliver on some of these areas.

But more profoundly than all of these things was the historic MOU that we signed with the private sector on a competitiveness programme, a US$25M competitiveness programme that will hopefully make the companies more competitive and our country more competitive and we’re also negotiating currently on an agricultural diversification programme that will add to the competitiveness programme, so hopefully by next year these two things will give a big input to creating the sectoral conditions necessary for private sector growth and development.

I had not intended to speak about the Value-Added Tax here but Mr. Correia spoke about that Tax and I’m pleased, maybe not pleased, but I’m glad he raised the issue. The VAT is not a pioneering tax, it’s working in over 70 countries in the world, including many Caribbean countries. Jamaica has a Value Added Tax, America has VAT, Trinidad and Tobago has VAT, Barbados has VAT, that’s the first point I wish to make. And the private sector and the people in those countries have learned to live with that Tax. It’s a Tax that helps significantly in broadening the tax-base, but what was the objective of the Tax? Was it to bring in more revenue to the coffers of the Ministry of Finance? Or was it to broaden the tax base and to prepare us for impending free trade because we have to meet many of our obligations? Let me say to you…we said from the very beginning that this should be revenue-neutral; we are not looking to increase the collection, that is, increase taxes or the tax take from the introduction of this tax. But I disagree with Mr. Correia that by lowering corporate tax for a few companies that suddenly you are going to get the pass-on benefit to the consumers. Mr. Correia, we are going to tackle the impact on the consumers directly because the taxes go up in some cases to some products and come down in some cases to other products and we are going to ensure that it does not have a negative impact on cost-of-living. I don’t want to take the concessions back to the Private Sector and I hope through the goodwill of the Private Sector that this benefit will be passed on to consumers, our experience has been different and I hope that you recognise that too.

The next thing is that a whole range of taxes are going to be eliminated as a result of the introduction of the VAT. There is very little focus on that. I agree that we need to do much more work with the public to have people understand the Tax so that there is no fear when it is introduced. But I hope that the Private Sector Commission will not just ask the government to do this but like the Private Sector bodies in other parts of the world that they will work with their members and other members of the private sector to get them ready for the taxes and to ensure that they don’t, because they were paying taxes on many of these products already, they don’t act in a rapacious manner and use the opportunity based on the ‘talk up’ statements like that that there will be increase in the cost of living by some key members of the private sector to use that as an opportunity to raise the taxes on the consumers because in many cases they were paying the taxes before, this is just making the tax payment visible. So, we can have a debate about that and I’m very pleased that you mentioned it. The government is open to all of these things; the Guyana Revenue Authority must do more. I agree with that but the PSC as part of this partnership and part of this historic MOU must give support to its members…those who are in the organised Private Sector as well as those who are not in the organised private sector to encourage them to get into the organised private sector.

And this is why I was very pleased with what Mr. Gouveia said, that two ways you can do that is that you can make reforms in the PSC itself to enhance the democracy and the inordinate weight that corporate members and large groups have within that body and secondly that you should urge your members to practice good corporate governance because many companies are defended even when they unilaterally stop paying taxes like some of the leading members of your body. I did not want to do this here but since you raised the issue, because we must not use these opportunities to hijack a forum to give only our views on a particular matter, you know me, I’ve always been frank with the people in this country I don’t care where the occasion is because I think only being frank with each other that we move this country forward and forget all the platitudes and being nice because it would not lead us anywhere. So, I think we have much more work to do in this area but I don’t want the rumour-mongering and the scare-mongering to take hold in the population and it seems as though that took the occasion by some irresponsible statements made by several people. I want to say to you that we have set our programme for the next five years. I plan to invite the political parties to work with me on that programme on the areas that they feel comfortable and this is outside of the parliament because I think there is room for improving all in implementing a programme of moving our country forward. I hope to work with them and anyone who wants to move our country forward and who have a positive attitude about it, anyone. We think if we all do this as a people this country is going to prosper, it’s going to do well and satisfy all the people with the lifestyles they want.

I hope that we all take the opportunity to walk around have a look at what is offered and you will support the growth of this industry.

In terms of our international partnerships too, we are looking forward to working with our international partners. We have had a lot of positive help from many countries in several areas and we hope it will continue and we will work with them in moving our country forward.

Once again have a joyous GuyExpo I now declare GuyExpo open.

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