Swiss investors interested in Guyana

The non-resident Ambassador of the Swiss Confederation to Guyana, Mr Didier Chassot is here exploring opportunities for investors from his homeland, according to the Ministry of the Presidency (MotP).

His Excellency Chassot Tuesday evening met with Guyanese Head-of-State, David Granger where he noted that the country is becoming the ‘land of opportunities’ with the development of an Oil and Gas sector and the pursuit of the Green State Development Strategy (GSDS).

The Swiss Ambassador intends on expanding areas of collaboration between the two countries and has already met with the Guyana Office for Investment (GO-INVEST) since his arrival here, the Ministry said.

“This morning (Tuesday), I had a meeting with GO-INVEST precisely to have a briefing on what the opportunities would be for Swiss investors and for the business community to come to Switzerland. Very recently, an agreement on the promotion and protection of the investments between Guyana and Switzerland came into effect so this gives the business communities in Guyana and Switzerland a good legal framework so we want to develop the cooperation,” he is quoted as saying in the Ministry’s statement.

Switzerland also stands ready to lend support to Guyana in developing its ‘Green State’ strategy, the Swiss Ambassador noted.

He said that his country looks forward to the transfer of its expertise and experiences to Guyana as it has a common ‘green’ vision to combat the effects of climate change and global warming and create a more sustainable planet.

“We are trying to build on this exchange. We identified several areas of possible cooperation. We know of the commitment of Guyana and the President himself, with regard to the environment and its protection, the ‘green’ economy and we believe that there is ground for cooperation and exchange of expertise,” Ambassador Chassot told the MotP.

He added: “Certainly, there is expertise and experience we can share and I am sure we can be able to develop something concrete on a bilateral level. The President has spoken about the rich biodiversity that Guyana has and the richness of the environment and this is indeed something that has to be preserved not just for Guyana but the whole world and Switzerland is willing to contribute to these efforts.”

The Ministry said Ambassador Chassot has also met with the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Secretariat to discuss areas of collaboration and cooperation particularly in the area of disaster risk management and building resilience to natural disasters.  

“One of the areas of possible cooperation that we have identified is disaster risk reduction, disaster management, disaster relief and resilience. The region has been affected by hurricanes in the recent past. It is very likely that similar events will occur in the future again and Switzerland already has a commitment in those specific issues in the region. We would like to develop cooperation here in the region with CARICOM and member states,” the Swiss Ambassador noted.