Companies urged to take advantage of Guyana’s ‘boundless’ opportunities
Guyanese have been urged to take advantage of the immense entrepreneurial opportunities available in Guyana.
Senior Minister in the Office of the President with Responsibility for Finance, Dr. Ashni Singh made the call as he delivered remarks at the opening of the Laparkan Technology Expo, held as part of its 40th Anniversary, at Pegasus Conference Centre.
The minister commended the company for this significant milestone, adding that this serves as a testament to the value of forging lasting international partnerships.
He urged that all Guyanese companies take advantage of the opportunities for strategic international partnerships that abound as a result of the country’s upward economic trajectory.
“We live today in a period when entrepreneurial opportunities abound at a scale, with a frequency and rapidity that has never been seen before. The Guyanese economy today is growing by leaps and bounds, the fastest growing economy in the world, growing at an average of more than 45 per cent over the last two years, and anticipated to grow at more than 25 per cent in real terms over the next three to five years.
“So, the lesson of Laparkan and its founders, identifying this opportunity, seizing it, taking a chance, investing, and converting that opportunity into a rapidly growing business, is an important example and lesson to anybody considering entrepreneurial opportunities today,” the senior minister explained.
The finance minister also noted that, in exploring these opportunities and investing, it is important that companies identify their unique skills and interests, thereby converting those into successful business ventures.
“You have to know what you are good at, what your own skills and comparative advantages are, what your risk appetite is, and you have to put your skills and comparative advantages at work for you,” he said.
Laparkan is the authorised distributor in Guyana for Canon products. The expo highlighted Canon Innovation and Imaging Solutions products and technologies and featured educational seminars and demonstrations of imaging solutions and innovations.
Highlighting the importance of technology in a rapidly evolving world, the senior minister urged the private sector to continue to seek ways to deploy the use of technology to improve efficiency. This includes efficiency in business processes, the delivery of service, as well as in the acquisition and deployment of assets.
Dr Singh posited, “Technology today offers boundless opportunities for greater efficiency, and each one of us, in what we do, should seriously contemplate how we can deploy available technology to improve efficiency, in whatever it is that we are doing,”
Government recognises the importance of this, and is actively employing technology to promote increased efficiency in the delivery and implementation of government services.
Minister of Labour, Joseph Hamilton, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Vice Chairman of Laparkan Trading Limited, Hussein Haniff, President of Canon Mexicana, Mikio Tagaki, and President of Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI), Kester Hutson were also in attendance.