More to come.

hope it is not in the buying and selling trade or another fast food joint of the kind the PPP were always touting as investment. We need small manufacturing. We need coffee groves, coco plantation and a spice industry that can compete with brand names like McCormick. We need bottling plants, we need food processing and packing plants, we need everything from activating our craft people to make custom paper and manufacture greetings cards, to print on demand to pen making to utensils making. Very few of these need large capital investment but the returns are long term and sustainable. For example, sun dried tomatoes depending if cherry, to plum to Roma  are  10 to 100US a pound. Sugared Ginger, packaged peanuts, Brazil nuts all can help to boot strap small industry.

One needs to see the plan come to reality and progress in the country.

Agreed.   This is not investment, and most of the jobs created will be low skilled, low paying dead end jobs, and most of the products sold will likely be imported.

Guyana, indeed, needs investment in manufacturing as that is the base from which its economy will truly grow. However, most of the manufacturing will remain small scale, until some change in approach is made. For large scale manufacturing the two most expensive parts of production are energy and labour.

Until cheaper energy is sourced and a more competitive labour environment is available larger companies that can command the kind of visibility and shelf space needed to boost the profile of Guyana as a manufacturing country will stay away.

The government of Guyana needs to focus on developing its energy resources, not just oil, but also hydro, wind etc. After that it will need to foster an environment that attracts migrants from the Caribbean and other parts of the world so as to create a reliable and competitive labour force that can be used to source large companies. 

Why?

Who do you think will move to Guyana to work in factories.  Only Haitians, because only they earn less than do Guyanese.

You do know that thousands of Guyanese live in other parts of the Caribbean, and in neighboring Venezuela, Brazil and Suriname, because wages are higher.

And why are energy costs higher in Guyana, than in Jamaica, which is also dependent on petro products as its main energy source.  They have a larger manufacturing sector than does Guyana.

Jamaica has a larger population, therfore, more labour available and more competition to foster disipline among the workforce:
Jamica 2.7 milion
Guyana 750,000 thousand

Jamaica gets shelf space the world over because "JAMAICA" is a brand all its own, Guyana. Guyana will need help in that regards through some kind of partnership with large manufacturers.

If only Haitians come then so be it, nothing wrong with that, but I doubt that only they will migrate for economic reasons. In the mean time small scale manufacturing still needs to be developed in Guyana, that is also important. 

Also what is wrong with bringing in Africans, South and East Asians and Chinese?

With regards to energy cost; unless you are producing your own oil or can source it below market value it is the most expensive part of production. 

Jamaica worked hard to develop a brand image and didn't get help from any.  Jamaicans are fiercely proud of who they are.  THAT is their brand!

Guyanese are a divided people.  And always looking for some foreigner to rescue them as you do with the foolish belief that people will WILLING come across the oceans to work for those piddling Guyanese wages.

The Chinese who are brought in are semi slaves.  The youtube, which showed the conditions that they were living at the Marriott construction site, should have convinced you. 

Barbados is 300,000 people, some of the highest wages in the Caribbean (the reason why so many other Caribbean people remain there, even as unemployment has increased).  Their manufacturing sector is bigger than is Guyana's. The export value of Bajan manufactures is around US$200Million.  Excluing rice milling and sugar, Guyana is only US$ 90 Million.

What is your excuse.  A net oil importer, higher cost labor, and a much smaller population!

Deepshit_Guy, this is deep. Indeed!

This is the wrong type of business to open up in Guyana.  Peter Ramsaroop tried something similar and he failed miserably.  The consumers are not simple there to upkeep such a venture.  Senior member like Mitwah does not know anything about business.    

No more credit for you at my rum shop.

I hope u get the drift of the Afro_Guyanese experts on here. Just on here.

logistics is a major problem for Guyana. I believe, there are enough local people to do all the things u mentioned. Getting it to the market place is a problem.

The Ministry of Business seems to have gone dumb. Deaf, I know they are. 

I agree - this is more shop girls jobs.  Where are the real value added jobs under this APNUAFC Government?

Talk is cheap!

Kishan Bhai gets excited even when Granger Fart.

Cease being a racist and the Nigerian jujus will stop bothering you.

Yuh tooo negative, bruddah.

I would say at least 90% of Guyanese in North America prefer to buy Lalahs and Chetty Curry powders rather than Sujata, Indi, or Champion. Why is this? The Guyanese products are do damn expensive. Guyanese curry powder manufacturers are losing millions in sales to Indian companies because they are just not good at producing at lower cost and properly promote and price their products.

No.  I am having tremendous fun watching jujus harassing you.

Igbos think that I am one of them, so there is a spiritual connection there.  I do happen to have some Igbo ancestry. Serves you right for messing with an Igbo man.

People will pay extra for quality.  Both XM and El Dorado 12 year olds sell, even though Bacardi is around.

But if a company doesn't develop a brand following, and a perception for quality then they will get no sales. Guyanese blacks most likely buy the Trini curry, as those Indian brands will not be accessible to them.

Because they are plainly misguided and not innovative cooks. Curry is personal. The sameness of these brands may be for restaraunts looking to conserve identity and quality but evern here it is uncreative.

When we were growing up no one bought curry. The family cook concoct it from available spices as needed. Curry is easy to formulate and by doing it you get to craft flavors matching your ingenuity. All the ingredients to make a good curry is already in your pantry. What you may not have is turmeric and it would be rare that this spice cannot be gotten from the local market.

I suggest you go and formulate your own just to see what I am talking about. Curries are creativity of the cook and starting out with a blend is like starting out with pre ground canned coffee. You never  the benefit of the real beans as they come from the roaster.

Avoid ever buying curry power and you will find that creating a blend in batches and experimenting with historic formulas is really cool. You can start by asking the old wedding house cooks or the older people what they did.

Just like the rest of APNU/AFC.  They seem to have discovered that wanting to govern, and actually governing or two different things. 

I think the guys mean well (most of them) but they don't seem to be too bright, and seem unwilling to reach out to people who are.  I hope that Cathy Hughes made good use of her time in NYC over the weekend, sitting down with people who could provide her with some ideas.  ]

The 50th anniversary will be a good time to do lots as many folks will go down. Hopefully the Guyana gov't and private sector will see this as an opportune time to develop BRAND Guyana, aimed initially at the Guyanese/Caribbean diasporic markets.

Well not the Indo KKK, as they are now angry that Maduro has shifted his madman rant to Colombia. Next year as most Guyanese celebrate 50 years of independence, they will still be screaming "black man a kill ahbe".

In Nigeria the Igboos are the money people. The Yorubas always sey love money.

Not all women are interested in being tied to the kitchen making curry from scratch, as they lack time. 

In addition there is a sizeable market of non Indians, Caribbean, and others who use curry, but have no intention in making it from scratch, any more than your average Jamaican woman will want to make jerk sauce from scratch.

Maybe these Guyanese companies can do some R&D and develop a product which approximates the "made from scratch" curry.  They can then charge a premium, as this will have quality lacking elsewhere.

Stereotypes.  Both Igbos and Yorubas know how to make money, and prize education. 

The only difference is that when Yorubas are successful, they have fun.  Igbos don't seem to understand that "dey gun dead and lef' it and the kids might just waste it ", so they might as well have some fun before meeting their Creator,

In Abuja, one can tell how wealthy a guy is. Some people in parts of the world emphasize on building and landscape. Not that those are not important to wealthy Nigerians. But dem people dat got some huge gates and some fancy ironwork.

Sometime I will write about how demonic dem juju are. On Nigerian TV, there is soap opera of the stuff. Scary shit. I had to turn the TV and read Psalm 91.

Almost all Nigerian movie, the wimen beatup dem men-folk. I remarked that the Bar guy. He laughed so hard, the other enquired what I said to him. Nice people-polite. They called me Baba.

It takes 10 mins tops with a grinder and the spices. One batch with a small bullet blender is enough for many days of cooking. Food is not a thing to be hurried as each technique cannot be compromised based on time constraints.

And there is no recipe that captures what is a curry. Those companies simply set themselves up on a formula that people like. There are thousands of variants that are determined by cooking style or the absence or presence of one of the 5 basic ingredients with substitutions of other spices and the cook's ability to highlight flavors.

Curry is not always turmeric based ie yellow. It can be anything from brown to green to red. Curry is just a name for cooking with some basic ingredients. It might as well be "stew". Again, there are no quintessential recipe. You get blandness if you stick to the packaged brands.

This is not a contest, it is a discussion but it is very difficult to discuss with you when you already have the answers to everything and you summarily dismiss other peoples input. Don't you think I know of Jamaica and the reasons for it's "BRAND" hence I mentioned it? Think for a bit man not everything has to be spelled out. 

For every negative you started out with I have provided a response, however, you keep coming up with more "reasons" and you are all over the place. It seems as though you intend to “win” at all cost by throwing shit at the wall until some sticks.

I talk based on facts, as an opinion without same basis in fact is useless.

Now if you don't have your facts, then what can I say, but your excuse that Guyana is too small is silly.  Barbados has far less resources, far fewer people, higher wages, and I don't see how their energy costs will be that much lower.

Your responses are not based in fact.  Guyana has an unimaginative private sector, and the worst governments since independence.  In 1966 Barbados and Guyana were comparable.  But now Barbados is streaks ahead. WHY are their manufacturing exports higher than ours, when even the raw materials used must usually be imported.

Question!

What does Barbados export??

Thank u, Mr.T 

KB/JB, I see you put on your opposition hat.

How about cassava bread and piwari?

KB/JB speak from both sides of their mouth.