Page 12 - GMSA 2017 AR Print for flip1

President’s Report,

Annual General Meeting, March, 2018

Mr. Shyam Nokta
President
Guyana Manufacturing &
Services Association

lmost one year ago, I was elected to the position of President GDP growth for 2017 was 2.9% compared with the 3.8% projected
of the Guyana Manufacturing and Service Association. In at the beginning of 2017. The overall downward trend for the last
Athe first week of taking office, the new Board set out it’s few years in almost all the productive sectors continued in 2017.
priorities for the year and identified five major focus areas: The downscaling of the sugar industry has been a major cause
for concern especially in the absence of any concrete plan to
• Consolidating and Expanding Membership buffer job losses.
• Improving Governance and Administration
• Improving information and Communication with Members As it regards the manufacturing sector, at the halfway mark, June
• Facilitating and Addressing Members Issues 2017, light manufacturing had marginally grown by 1.3% from a
• Raising the Profile of GMSA projected 1.9% and according to budget 2018, the manufacturing
sector is projected to have a 2.4 percent growth in 2018.
I believe I can say that we have made progress in all of these
areas and the profile of the GMSA has been elevated where Addressing Barriers to Manufacturing and Services –
we are working as a strategic partner with Government, other Engagements with Government
Private Sector bodies, the donor and international community,
and taking the lead on major sectoral initiatives. Key barriers to the manufacturing sector continued to prevail
– tax measures, access to finance, market access and trade
Performance of the Economy facilitation, procurement, and high cost and unstable energy
supply. The Board recognised that for the GMSA to have a
The work of the GMSA in this last year, must be seen within the sustained intervention on these barriers, we needed to engage
context of the economic climate and the performance of the with Government and to do so through a strategic approach.
economy. When we look at the economy’s performance, actual In the period from April 2017 to present, the GMSA had several

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