The Shapoorji Pallonji Group, the Indian conglomerate that built the Providence Stadium on the East Bank of Demerara (EBD), is set to make a return to Guyana more than a decade after it completed its sole project here.
In fact, the company hopes to set up a local office to position itself for business opportunities in Guyana and other neighbouring countries.
This is according to the company’s Advisor on Group Finance and Special Projects, S Kuppuswamy, who spoke to the News Room during a recent media familiarisation visit to India.
Kuppuswamy said the decision to establish an office in Guyana emerged after talks with Guyana’s President Dr. Irfaan Ali and Vice President Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo. Both leaders visited India earlier this year and urged the company to return to Guyana.
“… so we felt that we should take a lot of interest in setting up a representative office and exploring opportunities there,” he said.
Through support from the Government of India in the mid-2000s, the Shapoorji Pallonji Group was contracted to build the Providence Stadium that allowed Guyana to host matches for the 2007 ICC Cricket World Cup.
That 15,000-seat facility is currently the largest stadium in Guyana.
But since undertaking that project, the company has not executed any other projects here.
Still, its interest in re-entering the Guyana market has been growing due to the number of business opportunities here. The News Room understands that company was among those that bid for the contract to construct the new Demerara Harbour crossing.
But the conglomerate is not only interested in infrastructure projects.
“Now that Guyana has oil, there is a lot of potential for FPSOs [Floating Production Storage and Offloading vessels] which we are the best in the India in and we could probably look at exploring opportunities in that sector apart from infrastructure,” Kuppuswamy said.
Three FPSOs, or oil platforms, are currently in the Stabroek Block offshore Guyana. They were all built by SBM Offshore, a Dutch-based group of companies.
Kuppuswamy, however, believes that the Indian company has valuable experience and expertise it can offer Guyana.
