Business Development Report RAMESH DOOKHOO.

Contents. State of Businesses and other Economic activity.

COVID 19 and Banks.

State of Businesses. Food production meaning Flour, Bread, Biscuits Chow Mein, Other Noodles, coconut oil, margarine,butter,palm oil products have shown double digit increases.

Trucking is down by 70%. There is a heavy influx of TT owned businesses in support of Exxon.

Bauxite: Laid off 30 employees. Working half days. Production will be low.

Gold mining not significantly affected by Covid but restrictions implemented on workers.

Restaurants: Down by 50-60%. Closures have started.

Hardware and building materials: Down by 40-50%.

Sugar: Was affected by social distancing measures. Work force not showing up resulting in deterioting crop in the field. Outlook is poor.

State of Business Rice: Being a highly mechanized activity this was largely unaffected.

Fishing: Remain unaffected.

Oil AND Gas support: All projects are in progress no hindrances. It is understood that a full compliment of rigs are not servicing the FPSO. Rotation of skilled staff (including 14 days quarantine) has had negative effects.

Shipping: Global trade is trending downwards. Exports from Guyana in units of standard containers is down by 19% for April.

Tourism: Totally knocked out.

Insurance: The sector is experiencing a 25-30% reduction in premium income.

Domestic airline: 90% reduction in revenue.

Covid19 and Banks DIH Ltd. Covid 19 and Banks DIH. How to maximize shifting consumer habits.

1. Threats.

2. Opportunities.

3. “ changing marketing strategies and channels due to shifting trends created by COVID 19 restrictions.”

Threats. Massive reduction in the restaurant Business due to curfew.

Reduced consumption due to Economic Hardships.

Reduced Government spending due to no budget, no Parliament plus Covid 19 restrictions.

Opportunities. Increased sizes for family consumption.

Improved delivery of all products.

Re introduce COD company wide.

Ramp up service offerings. Staff can be retrained to deal with telephone orders.

Develop online payment system. Visa.master card and all payment systems.

Curb side pick up.

Whole sale pick up at Industrial site?

Banning of Single use Plastics Stakeholders meeting held by Office of the President and EPA.

The date for the ban on single use plastic was put back to June 2021.

The items remain the same, Cups,forks knives, straws etc.

It was recognized officially at this meeting to treat plastic bottles with a management solution.

The GMSA re-iterated its commitment to facilitate investments in waste processing.

Their maybe commercial and manufacturing opportunities in substitutes.

Monitoring Mechanism for Sugar (Background).

The 49th meeting of the COTED approved Belize and the SAC’S request to introduce a sugar monitoring mechanism .

A proposal was sent to CARICOM by the SAC AND CHAMPIONED BY BELIZE.

The proposal is designed to give access to Asecuyda by CARICOM for all countries specific to Sugar.

A national meeting was held yesterday chaired by the Foreign Secretary.

A simple synopsis in given in the next slide.

Monitoring mechanism for Sugar. PROPOSAL

Company specific price and quantities to be reported.

The request is for all sugar to be reported.

SAC will fund the entire project.

COUNTER PROPOSAL BY GUYANA

Private Sector objected to same. Aggregate information only.

The Private Sector requested that sugar be differentiated according to existing HS codes.

The Private Sector objected to Private Lobbyist Funds to be used by CARICOM.

Conclusions. Our view is that BSI lost the attempt to impose Plantation White sugar as a replacement for Refined Sugar and are now trying a ‘back door’ attempt to have the quantities monitored with a view of introducing some other ‘independent study’ to say that the sugars are replaceable. They were successful with this in Belize, including restricting sale in the country to one producer and are now attempting same in CARICOM.

The revenue authorities in the various territories have the data that is required for CARICOM / COTED decision making and can provide same. WE KNOW THERE IS NO MATCH FOR REFINED SUGAR PRODUCTION VS DEMAND. Why are we wasting resources requiring this information? P6, 3rd bullet point under ‘INFORMATION REQUIREMENTS FOR THE MECHANISM’

Threat Level : Moderate.

Labelling Standards. Discussions were “CARICOM REGIONAL STANDARDS FOR PREPACKAGED FOODS”

Beverage Industry being asked to put Draconian symbols on front labels.

Coke has a well researched position on this matter and has asked that a letter be sent to the bureau of standards and the Minister of health.

At a most recent meeting with the GNBS who has to state a Guyana position to CROSQ .

Pepsi is ok with the requests from Coca Cola

Security Contracts being redone.

Positions being rationalized.

Huge request for additional cameras.

More Executives given access to Cameras.

Theft incidents being investigated.

Very top heavy department.

Rationalisation continues.