In keeping with Government’s recognition of the role small businesses play in adding value and employment, Finance Minister, Winston Jordan recently revealed that he intends to reduce the income and corporate tax rates applied to the profits of these entities to 25 percent.
To benefit from this reduction, however, Jordan said that the business must be registered with the Small Business Bureau, and be involved in either manufacturing or construction activities.
And this is not all that is being done to support small businesses. The economist noted that small businesses will also stand to benefit from initiatives undertaken by the Guyana Office for Investment (GO-Invest).
In fact, Jordan revealed that GO-Invest facilitated a Guyana Trade and Investment Exhibition this year, which was attended by over 100 international buyers. The event, he said, enabled 56 exhibitors and other delegates to participate in over 200 business-to-business meetings with private and public sector representatives.
As a result, 47 small businesses were matched with international companies that were seeking to establish relations to access products from Guyana. By the beginning of the fourth quarter, Jordan said that GO-Invest had facilitated approximately $73.8 billion in a proposed investment, which is anticipated to create over 1,700 jobs, across the coastal regions and Region Nine, in sectors such as agriculture, light manufacturing, services, forestry, and tourism.
The Finance Minister said that $44 billion of the aforementioned proposed investment has already been approved. He said that next year, GO-Invest is targeting between $60 billion and $80 billion in investments, 30 percent of which would benefit small businesses.
