New order of business

— Guyana’s Trade Facilitation Roadmap 2019 – 2024 launched

─ trade processing time will reduce by 50% by 2020

─ transaction costs will also reduce by 20%

DPI, Guyana, Friday, September 6, 2019

The way business is conducted in Guyana is about to change following the launch of the Trade Facilitation Roadmap 2019 – 2024. The document will ensure a smoother flow of trade activities; reduce the trade processing time by 50 percent by 2020, reduce transaction costs by 20 percent and eventually stimulate trade reform.

Following a five-day empowerment workshop this week, and months of preparation which began earlier in March this year, the policy document was formally adopted and launched on Friday.

Foreign Secretary, Carl Greenidge, who delivered the feature address at the launch, emphasised that if changes were to come, the necessary preparations had to be made.

“If you are to benefit in a meaningful way from the effect or spillover of growing international trade, then you have to be in a position to ensure that goods enter and leave your economy dispatched expeditiously,” he stated.

While also stressing that monitoring still had to be done, Greenidge said that the way in  which this is done is crucial.  “A manner that does not impose unnecessary burdens by way of administrative red tape and the like, because delay is a source of cost,” he stressed.

Through the implementation of the roadmap; there will be reduction in the time and resources expended by the private sector, facilitation of smooth and seamless operations, which is key to Guyana’s economic transformation, and an added incentive to investors.

“The government is fully committed to realising the benefits of the WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement because we believe that it will be of tremendous benefits to the people of Guyana,” the Foreign Secretary noted.

The document will be a reference tool, which outlines past procedures and actions, and now offers new pertinent details for the way forward on trade matters.

Guyana ratified the Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA) on November 30, 2015 and established a National Committee on Trade Facilitation (NCTF) on April 9, 2015 to oversee the implementation of the Agreement, which was launched on Friday September 6, 2019.