For rapid and significant progress to be realized many initiatives could benefit from government-to-government and government-to-business partnerships with the collaboration of citizens.
Examples of partnerships.
- The government can leverage its political and financial clout to support large private enterprises e.g. the airline industry to negotiate favorable financing terms, access to markets, and equitable prices because of economies of scale. None of this should negate the fiduciary and other responsibilities of the private entities to create and maintain stable profit-driven enterprises. Government should not be otherwise engaged other than to ensure that the taxpayers’ funds are secure and repaid as would be the case for any private investor.
- Guyana can partner with the U.S. government to become a pre-clearance facility for air passengers traveling to the USA. There are a handful of countries in the world with that dispensation, Aruba, Bahamas, Bermuda, Canada, Ireland, and the United Arab Emirates. This provides the same immigration, customs, and agriculture inspections of international air passengers performed on arrival in the United States allowing those procedures to be completed before departure from Guyana instead.The implementation would provide:
- Higher capacity and greater efficiencies throughout the air travel system, including reduced wait times and greater schedule flexibility, increase the volume of passengers that airports and air carriers can accommodate hence an increase in traffic that generates more revenue for Guyana.
- Lower repatriation costs: The costs associated with repatriating travelers who are denied admission to the United States are reduced, hence, a potential saving for the airlines operating out of Guyana.
- Government and private partnerships can be fruitful when both central and local government encourages businesses to sponsor small-scale projects (re-beautification projects are perfect examples) in large cities. Private corporations can be encouraged to sponsor the renovation of roads, zoo, parks, and other public facilities. Individuals can contribute towards the purchase of equipment and have the name of “sponsors” on equipment, or other public-facing resources on them.
- Private corporations and individuals can be encouraged to fund the purchase of public trash receptacles (standard sizes) that are supplied by an approved source and use them to advertise. These trash receptacles must be placed at various points in the city to provide easy disposal of waste by citizens.
- The Government of Guyana can reach out to the diaspora and not seek what their skill levels are but what business opportunities they can offer to Guyana, preferably with funding attached. The government can then facilitate the easy transition to the local business environment by reducing the bureaucracy needed to explore and as appropriate, implement these opportunities.
While these are only a few of the meaningful steps that can be taken they are without the high cost of financial and human capital, they come with both short-term and long-term positive and readably visible results.
