Chief Executive Officer of the Guyana Office for Investment (GO-Invest), Dr. Peter Ramsaroop, days ago reiterated the importance of foreign direct investment to Guyana’s development and shared how government is working to connect foreign companies with local businesses, in keeping with the need for private sector partnerships.
He made these comments at the recently launched Guyana Energy Conference and Exhibition (GEC-X ’21), which is being organized by the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI) together with several local companies, with support from the Guyana government and ExxonMobil.
Dr. Ramsaroop, who is also the country’s Chief Investment Officer, said the government has an aggressive and transformative economic agenda that includes the development of local enterprise. “Private sector partnership is what will make the next step in Guyana profitable…to all Guyanese.” The ultimate goal, he continued, “is to ensure that our local content, that our local companies benefit from our initiatives, to ensure we create wealth for our people.”
This, he noted, will be achieved by connecting local businesses with foreign investors, and GO-Invest will be working to facilitate that joint venture approach.
“We’re looking for the local content, the transfer of knowledge, we’re looking for new initiatives,” he declared. The government is also looking to encourage foreign investors to expand their presence in the country, and invest in other sectors. “We want to ensure that our current foreign direct investors that are in Guyana are treated well and we’re looking forward for them to get out and expand more than energy, into agriculture. And that’s why some of our government’s initiatives [are] in expanding the infrastructure,” Ramsaroop said.
Already, SBM Offshore is among the companies that have expanded their reach beyond energy and plugged financial and technical support into farming by way of a Memorandum of Understanding with Plympton Farms on the Linden-Soesdyke Highway. This arrangement has seen scores of farmers benefiting and over 100 Guyanese gaining income.
Minister of Natural Resources, Vickram Bharrat also stated the GEC-X ’21 launch that the private sector is a partner in development. “The Government cannot develop the country alone. The government cannot employ every single Guyanese. We need the private sector. We need the foreign investors to come to our shores and we will continue to partner with the foreign investors and the local private sector to ensure that we move all of our sectors forward,” he emphasized.
