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On Saturday, August 12, Opposition Leader, Mr. Aubrey Norton called on Afro-Guyanese to turn the focus to business, and not be dependent on handouts. The leader of the People’s National Congress Reform (PNR) spoke, too, about the importance of strong village economies. Norton said, “The African Guyanese needs to focus on business. We need to make all our villages sustainable where people in the village should be able to find everything they want or most things they want in the village.” Norton, who is also the chairman of the A Partnership for National Unity, made the call to action at an Emancipation 2023 event at Dartmouth, in Region Two (Pomeroon-Supenaam). While Norton’s call may be well intentioned and commendable, the current realities in Guyana under the rule of the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) regime may make his advice difficult to implement.
The challenges that any Afro-Guyanese entrepreneur faces are numerous and enormous. Those problems come from at least three directions: the general difficulty of doing business in Guyana, institutional racism against people of African origin, and political discrimination.
Starting a business in Guyana is one of the hardest undertakings that any citizen may contemplate. Guyanese are well aware of the runaround one has to face in a corrupt landscape just to start a small business, not to mention maintain it. One has to pay bribes every step of the way.
During the days of the A Partnership for National Unity + Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) Coalition government, a Ministry of Business was established. An entrepreneur could have accessed the services of that ministry to obtain help in setting up a business. However, when the PPP took power in 2020, the incomprehensible decision was made to shut down that ministry, thereby depriving Guyanese of access to those services.
The reality of the obstacles encountered by Guyanese entrepreneurs are known internationally. A report on Guyana by the International Trade Administration stated that, “Regulatory institutions remain largely paper-based and red tape is a challenge. Legal counsel and local representation may help navigate the Guyanese bureaucracy. Potential investors should be wary that government decision making processes can be slow, excessively centralised, and opaque.”
The report said, too, that “A significant number of contracts are decided by the Cabinet in a process largely closed to public scrutiny and awarded to well-connected companies. Guyana is ranked 134th on the Ease of Doing Business Index [out of 190 countries]. 134th is an exceedingly poor ranking.
That poor assessment does not surprise any Guyanese. Since the PPP government closed the Ministry of Business, there is no place for an entrepreneur to get free advice. Additionally, obtaining financing, registering a business, filing tax returns, and so on, are all time consuming and expensive. Certainly, the opposition leader is well aware of those facts.
With regard to numerous allegations of institutional racism and political discrimination against the PPP regime, is there any question or doubt that an Afro-Guyanese entrepreneur who approaches a government agency will face real – and contrived – obstacles and hurdles?
Norton’s call is evidently a positive piece of advice; one is certain that the Leader of the Opposition means well, however, the realities known to, and experienced by the ordinary man are quite different from those experienced by people in positions of privilege. The ordinary man who wants to start a business may need help in the form of financial support, advice, training, and perhaps even encouragement. Therefore, consideration may be given to providing Afro-Guyanese – not to mention other opposition supporters – with such assistance. After all, one cannot pull oneself up by the bootstraps.
