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| Summit Report: Executive Summary | Summit Report: Detailed Action Initiatives |
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| The NCS | The NCS Action Plan |
“We must now … make our number
one strategic economic priority the goal of enhancing the competitiveness
of our economy to deliver greater economic growth.”
His Excellency Bharrat Jagdeo
President, The Cooperative Republic of Guyana
The Summit
Report: Executive Summary Summit Report - Executive Summary ( 641 KB)
Report: Detailed Action Initiatives The Presidential Summit was a historic moment in Guyana’s economic development, for private and public sector leaders to collaborate in reviewing progress achieved and in formulating and taking important next action steps to create a positive economic future for the country.
The Summit united Guyanese leaders - from all walks of the nation - to contribute voices, ideas, energies, and passions – and ultimately to make commitments to take action that will help Guyana’s people, businesses, communities, and economy prosper.
May 2006 saw the culmination of collaborative work that had taken place over the past seven months to enrich Guyana’s National Competitiveness Strategy (NCS) (currently version 2.0) - a living changing strategy which charts a successful course forward for Guyana based on a ground-breaking partnership between the Government and private sector. On May 8th, more than 300 public and private sector leaders came together at the Presidential Summit on Private Sector Development to support this ongoing process to create a more prosperous Guyana.
An initial plenary session saw the showing of a video outlining the partnership approach to the development of the NCS. This was followed by keynote speeches delivered by the Minister of Tourism, Industry and Commerce, Hon. Manzoor Nadir, Mr Mike Correia, Vice Chairman of the Private Sector Commission, Geoff DaSilva, CEO of GoInvest, and a keynote address by His Excellency, President Bharrat Jagdeo. Following this, a set of public and private sector leaders from nine Action Teams worked with participants to develop more than 50 Action Initiatives, to enhance and evolve the National Competitiveness Strategy in key areas.
A committed group of public and private sector leaders - with the staff support from the Ministry of Tourism, Industry and Commerce, Go-Invest, and the PSC - have volunteered to lead the follow-up process to support and ensure on-going implementation of the action initiatives until the National Competitiveness Council is established after the up-coming elections.
Origins of the Summit
During the NCS consultations of the past seven months, many stakeholders throughout Guyana – in particular members of the private sector – expressed a strong desire to see a Presidential Summit take place early this year. Almost everyone who stated a view wanted to see a follow-up to the 1999 Presidential Summit, widely seen as an enormous success. The Summit was thus a response to requests from many private sector stakeholders to follow up on the 1999 Presidential Summit.
Objectives
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Highlighting Progress in “Turning Words into Action”: To highlight the progress made in the public- private “national conversation” that commenced last September, and to generate more momentum behind it, emphasizing the idea of turning words into action – i.e. that the consultations to date have resulted in plans for real action. For example, a MoU was signed on May 4th, 2006 between the Government and Private Sector Commission which will pave the way for the setting up of a National Competitiveness Council. Moreover, a new flagship program, the Support for Competitiveness Program, is now almost completely designed following the partnership process.
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Catalyzing Dialogue on Competitiveness Related Issues: To motivate more people to take part in the national conversation on competitiveness issues by highlighting the positive recent developments that have taken place – e.g. the partnership approach adopted between the Government and private sector, the Guyana-led approach to crafting the National Competitiveness Strategy, the practical implications of some of the new competitiveness related programmes.
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Cementing Progress in Strengthening Public-Private Dialogue: To cement the progress made to date on strengthening public-private dialogue in Guyana (described by the PSC as “the most extensive consultation since the NDS…..setting the stage for national unity).
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Platform to Launch Specific Initiatives: To launch specific initiatives to enhance Guyana’s national competitiveness, e.g. the “Doing Business in Guyana” guide for investors; the IDB-funded Support for Competitiveness Programme, announcement of the Government and Private Sector Commission’s support for the establishment of the National Competitiveness Council.
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Expanding the National Conversation: An opportunity to expand what His Excellency, President Jagdeo refers to as the “national conversation” about competitiveness issues by raising its public profile. This will hopefully encourage organized labour, Members of Parliament, and civil society representatives to join the Government and Private Sector in analysing competitiveness issues, and making recommendations for action into the future.
