New DAIC boss seeks membership expansion, to put house in order

Volney

The Dominica Association of Industry and Commerce (DAIC) is seeking to expand its membership and put its house in order, according to the Association’s new Chief Executive Officer Cyril Volney.

“We have both to consolidate our existing membership, and have a membership drive for new members,” he told Dominica News Online.

The DAIC official said enhancing productivity in the private sector would also be focused on by the newly put in place executive.

He has described Dominican businessmen and businesswomen as survivors who do very well no matter what, while conceding that the global financial situation was impacting on Dominica.

“The business environment worldwide is terrible, and we cannot survive, we won’t survive here unless we adapt to it.  The general business environment in Dominica is not of the best, we are generally reflecting the challenges in the world economy,” CEO Volney told DNO.

He said the business community here has “interest rate issues to worry about, we have foreign exchange issues to worry about”.

Volney expressed concern about the situation with the Japanese Yen revaluing itself upwards.

“Business people who have to buy in Japanese and pay in Japanese yen are walking a tightrope … these are all issues that are facing the business community,” he explained.

DAIC’s Cyril Volney was however less comfortable about commenting on local concerns that “Chinese businesses” were springing up “all over Roseau” as some allege and putting some locals out of business.

He suggested that these businesses being criticized were likely owned by people holding economic citizenship and in were in that sense Dominican and entitled to own businesses on the island.

LISTEN TO SOME OF WHAT DAIC’S CYRIL VOLNEY HAD TO SAY IN HIS INTERVIEW WITH DNO:

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22 Comments

  1. Pundit
    February 12, 2012

    Yes, like the same way your mum left the workers at tropicrafts high and low with no pension etc. You better go back under the mango tree and stay there supplay.

    • commentator
      February 15, 2012

      no need to drag up personal stuff. You should balance what his mother did for our children education, you Jacka**e.Not counting how many mouths were fed when there was nothing else!!

  2. VIDEO please
    February 5, 2012

    where is the video?

  3. commentator
    February 4, 2012

    Go uncle Cy, go! I think you will rcognise your mango tree resident here! Well Done matey.

  4. bambi
    February 3, 2012

    All dcans have to do is don t buyftom the chinese…uf all u don t want thrm thete, don t buy from them, hence they eill close down shop and leave as ll u country……
    I nevet forget when I was a chidin dcan and my mother needed 100 dollars to buy a pair of shoes from a local store. A shoe the store owner biught f 10 us from the same chineses in downtown miami wholesale district, and brought it to dcan and made 5x the profit……now a poor person can afford to buy cheaper f their children….i welcome competition f the working poor …those of u that can afford to buy ecp we nsive stuff go aheaf and buy it….poor people need also :twisted:

  5. So sick and Tired
    February 3, 2012

    OOOOOOOOOH! This is the Mr. Volney, I knew I was going to see him with some position in Dominica soon! Interesting, very interesting!! Mr. Volney sir, May I ask you a question, I see your man concern is to grow the membership of the DAIC, and also not your position on the Chinese business domination in Dominica, do you sir intend to recruit the Chinese/Dominican business people into your organization? If not Sir, why not? If so Sir do you believe that you can get them to join your organization? Sir what are the implications of the Chinese dominating business in Dominica for the Social Security Administration?

  6. possie
    February 3, 2012

    Dont have problems with this son of the soil as long as he dosnt try to take sundays from my people like the last seventh day adventist CEO tried doing to disrespect sunday worshiping dominicans.

  7. britbob
    February 3, 2012

    My grandfather used to make us write or penmanship “the heights by great men reached and kept, were not attained by sudden flight , but they, while there companions slept, were toiling upward through the night” . From back in the day , the lazy among us have always tried to blame something or other for their lack of relative success (obeah, drugs, privilege, nepotism, now preferable race treatment) .. Will we never learn?? It’s just about getting up every morning and busting your behind … do it better than them and you will get further than them!! .. Welcome aboard Cyril .. Great to know we got someone there who knows what they are talking about!

  8. blabla
    February 2, 2012

    My God. Another puppet, out of sink with Dominicas affairs. All respect to returning Dominicans but Mr. Volney has no idea of the business environment in Dominica. He is again there to protect the interest of a few and as usual lack of representation to the majority of businesses. I sence aggression, bossiness and an unapproachable individual who is looking not to the interest of local businesses.

  9. Law and order
    February 2, 2012

    Well done Mr. Volney, a Dominican busness man is a Dominican business man,regardless of his race, or religion, this was an inappropriate question.

  10. DrSmash
    February 2, 2012

    Oops! my bad, ‘Volney worked as a professional banker’.

  11. Adult ED
    February 2, 2012

    I agree Volney should not have deflected such a serious concern about expanding Chinese businesses. While it is only fair that Chinese get to benefit from assistance provided to Dominica it should not be at the expense of the local people and their businesses. They should be operating under the same rules and regulations as local businesses particularly in the area of paying import duties and taxes. If not it will be inevitable that the local businesses will not be able compete and fail. Transparency related to this matter is an extremely justifiable serious concern not only for business people but Dominicans as a whole.

  12. Anonymous
    February 2, 2012

    Don’t expect much!!! See how it started, same way with the DBS manager! Alas por Dominicans!

  13. Business
    February 2, 2012

    Mr Volney

    word of advice.

    the daic is seen as a group of people who protect the interests of a small group of dominican businesses.

    the last two presidents were karl nassief and jenny astaphan. the new president is lilian piper.

    achille joseph played a mouthpiece role and if you are not careful so will you. so whilst from “under the mango tree” you can be detached from dominica in a humorous way, in your new role you have to understand that you dealing with a stratified country and business community.

    but after a few dinner parties and meetings seeing the same people saying the same things, it may dawn upon you.

    the daic is irrelevant for 99% of small businesses in dominica. it does have opportunities to network and to get first bite at certain concessions and government’s ear.

    none of these people are known for their concern about other peoples businesses.

    you have to show that you are not the same. bad start.

  14. February 2, 2012

    are we talking about dominicans or chinese community? are these chinese people dominicans?

    dude why you trying to play smart… bringing up race card…

    he said “i’m not going to talk about chinese, i’m talking about dominicans competing against dominicans and i think that’s a healthy thing”

    ok business people this guy basically means even if you go out of business to chinese owned businesses… that it’s a healthy thing…. these chinese getting all kinds of duty free concessions… not employing locals and allegedly not paying taxes…. wow!!!!

    who are these guys that leading DAIC… the fact that dno have tapes now is a good thing but i feel some interviewees will ask for ‘no taped’ interviews.

    the recording exposed him much more…. we need to upgrade to cameras lol

  15. flyboy
    February 2, 2012

    I listened to the interview conducted with Mr Volney and I was disturbed by his reluctance to answer a legitimate question asked by the interviewer with regards to Dominicans concern about Chinese business people taking over. What is he afraid of? Dominicans have a right to be concerned because they are the ones being directly affected. If local businesses are to fail due to the Chinese domininance this could spell disaster for the Dominica labor force.

  16. Anonymous
    February 2, 2012

    Yey who is volney, can the people know? a friend of a friend of a politican?.

  17. Anonymous
    February 2, 2012

    That importers’ organisation is a waste of time in Dominica.

  18. Not a herd follower
    February 2, 2012

    DNO, could your readers get a brief bio relating to the professional background of Mr. Volney? When new people take up important positions in major organizations in our country, the public should be told something about their professional background so that we know what they bring to the organizations and how to relate to them. Thanks.

    • Business
      February 2, 2012

      They should do the same for Piper. They dont want people thinking they are just placing these people in roles because they can string sentences together and have the right names and friends.

    • DrSmash
      February 2, 2012

      Volney worked throughout the Caribbean and Canada as a professional biker. To read more about him, visit Dominica-Diaspora.com.After you register for FREE(is freenees) browse ,Under De Mango Tree’.

    • Cyril Volney
      February 2, 2012

      Volney is many generations Dominican (Royea/Shillingford/Nicholls). Educated at SMA, and a graduate of Seneca College business school. Business experience includes over 30 years as a commercial banker in Toronto, Vancouver, Grand Cayman, Barbados, and SVG. A “returnee” over 2 years ago, Volney has built his home in Wesley. Volney has also worked as a Company director and management mentor. I believe this info has been on the news in recent times. Hope that helps to answer your question…

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