Last year was described as the “foundation building year” for the Guyana Office For Investment (GO-Invest) by the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Dr. Peter Ramsaroop with some $200 billion in investment projects finalized.
The GO-Invest CEO shared with the News Room on Friday that those investments were generated from 56 projects across all sectors and platforms in the country.
“It is not about hype and we have no desire to draw big numbers at all..the present goal is through investment through development, transformation and jobs for people,” the GO-Invest Head said.
Of the projects, 30 percent were agriculture-based, 32 percent were from the services sector while 36 percent were from the manufacturing sector while the remaining were from the forestry, energy and mining sectors.
Based on year-end performance indicators derived from investors’ figures, the investments are expected to create some 3,00 jobs when the respective projects are fully operational, Dr. Ramsaroop noted.
And the new jobs and associated training opportunities will increase the country’s human resource capabilities across sectors, including agriculture, services and manufacturing, and the information and communication technology (ICT) sector.
“…so what we were able to do is to facilitate were those foundation building investors and investment to support the President’s goal of building a transformative economy,” he said.
According to the GO-Invest Head, local companies “have stepped up their game” tremendously and should be given credit as almost 64% of the investments were made by locals.
“What was more fascinating is that are local entities stepped up to many of the areas that are needed for both oil and gas and in agriculture,” he pointed out.
Additionally, Dr. Ramsaroop said that GO-Invest also signed over 20 Memoranda of Understanding (MOU) last year with a large chunk in the hotel sector.
And already, those MOU’s have bore fruit with several branded hotels being constructed. Currently, the country simply does not have the hotel capacity to handle the intended influx of visitors, even though a large part of the government’s promotion of ‘Destination Guyana’ is to attract more tourists.
International brands like the Hyatt, Best Western and the Raddison and it was previously reported that globally recognised brands from Latin America are looking to establish a footing in Guyana as well.
Moveover, other MOU’s were signed for agro-processing projects as well, he said.
The Guyana Office for Investment (GO-Invest) was established under the Public Corporations Act (1994) in 1994 as a semi-autonomous body.
GO-Invest is divided into two divisions, one responsible for Investment Facilitation and Promotion and the other for Export Promotion. With these divisions, GO-Invest offers a full complement of services to local and foreign investors and exporters.
