Investors in the United Kingdom have expressed an interest in getting into Guyana’s petroleum, oil and gas sectors.
The proposals were made during a recent State visit to the UK by President David Granger. The Guyanese Head of State on that occasion met with in excess of 200 UK-based companies and individuals.
Foreign Affairs Minister Carl Greenidge on Wednesday made the revelation while addressing a press conference held in the main boardroom of the Foreign Affairs
In the audience at the Investment Seminar on Guyana were business executives from infrastructure, port development, oil and gas, tourism and hospitality and shipping sectors, as well as some members of the diplomatic community
Ministry.
According to Greenidge, the Guyanese delegation met with some 250 persons and companies from the Diaspora and further afield, all with an interest in Guyana.
He told reporters that the meetings did not yield any formal investment proposals from any of the participants since the forum was more of a fact-finding foray.
According to Greenidge, the various technical officers for each of the sectors, such as mining and agriculture, were not present with the delegation.
He said the event centred on persons learning more about Guyana and some of the opportunities available and some of the persons did disseminate information for several Government agencies such as the Agriculture Ministry.
Minister Greenidge said too that talks in the UK at the Government to Government level also centred on matters of security, Brexit and the development of Guyana’s green State economy among others.
On the matter of security assistance, Greenidge told reporters that based on the initial talks between the two Governments in addition to a scoping mission currently underway by a British security expert, it has given rise to the possibility of the funds being released by the end of the year.
Minister Greenidge said he was speaking to the Security Sector Reform Programme (SSRP) which was scrapped by the previous Administration.
The Guyana Foreign Affairs Minister told reporters that on the matter of the United Kingdom’s pull out of the European Union – Brexit – the Guyanese leader expressed concerns over the likely impact on the Caribbean region and on Guyana.
According to Greenidge, it was not a concern of the Guyana Government to find out what the UK was negotiating with the EU as it relates to its pullout but rather the impact on the Caribbean and countries such as Guyana that trade in goods and services with the UK.
He told reporters the visit by the Guyanese delegation “took place at a critical juncture of Guyana’s development and at an equally critical one in the UK’s political and economic evolution.”
According to Greenidge, “In keeping with this, the representatives of the UK and Guyana Government discussed a range of important pertinent issues, such as Brexit implications for Guyana and proposed transitional arrangements for the Caribbean, cooperation in the sphere of crime and security and to the development of a green State in Guyana.”
Greenidge said there is still a great deal of uncertainty with regard the implication of Brexit and that previous bilateral arrangements between the two countries through their respective High Commissioners will have to be resuscitated.
Minister Greenidge also used the occasion to provide an update on his meetings in Istanbul, Turkey, where he represented the country and Caribbean region for the establishment of a permanent mechanism of cooperation between the Republic of Turkey and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC).
He lauded the relations between Turkey and CELAC as he sought to point to the geographic and economic importance of that country as a bridge between the East and the West and between Europe and the Middle East.
