5 multinational firms negotiating to bring corporate HQs to Guyana

…as US$100M Pegasus Suites & Conference Centre is officially opened

President Dr Irfaan Ali, who attended the ceremony for the official opening of the US$100 million Pegasus Suites and Conference Center, has revealed that the Government is currently in talks with at least five multinational corporations who are interested in bringing their corporate headquarters to Guyana.

In his address to those gathered at the opening on Wednesday, President Ali noted that investors are looking in from the outside and seeing Guyana in all its investment potential, such as the five companies who want to bring their headquarters here.
“People are looking and listening. They read our newspapers, they listen to conversation, and they make business decisions. As I speak to you, we have at least five huge multi-nationals operating in the region that are actively considering bringing their headquarters to Guyana.
“These are no longer dreams; these are things that are actively in the pipeline. Once those type of decisions are made, these types of investments become more and more justified,” President Ali explained.
Ali issued a call for the people to be unified. He noted that Guyana is on an upward trajectory, and persons must be more patriotic in how they speak about the country. He affirmed that, in his own way, he would continue to reach out and build bridges for a One Guyana.
“This investment should be an inspiration to the naysayers. Perseverance; commitment to a cause and a vision; generation of ideas; embracing those ideas; and believing that it can happen and will happen are traits that are not easily earned. Unfortunately, you cannot be a naysayer and have these traits,” President Ali said.

According to Ali, the Government is focused on pushing eco-tourism. He noted that while Guyana does not have white sand and blue waters, the country is close to a country that does have these attributes. He noted that Guyana needs a product mix that can appeal to those who want to go to the beach.
President Ali noted that the Administration is working on launching a night safari which would utilise Guyana’s natural rainforest. He said that activity would be the first of its kind in the region. “It is these types of transformational projects that will make the difference,” he said, as he urged members of the Private Sector to put their heads together and come up with a solution for sustainable air travel options that are not at the mercy of price fluctuations during on-peak and off-peak seasons.

Difficult project
Chairman of the Pegasus Hotel, Robert Badal, the man behind the Pegasus Suites and Conference Center, in his address, described the project as one of the most difficult projects he has ever undertaken.
The difficulty in bringing it to fruition ranged from the complexity of the engineering and implementing systems, which meet American and European building codes, to the issues he faced with procurement, due to the disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Badal has been full of praise for the President’s vision of where he wants Guyana to go. According to Badal, this project was conceptualised based on the direction Guyana is going, and the President’s vision.
“It’s a direct reaction to the vision of our President, Dr. Ali, in his quest to bring about transformational change, not only in the oil sector, but also in the housing (and) agricultural sectors. And that vision he has taken very actively on both the national and international stages,” Badal said. “And we must be thankful for that, because what it has created is a new wave of optimism in Guyana, where every week we see a new hotel being launched, every month somebody coming in to prospect and see what they can do in Guyana. So, we applaud the leadership of the President.”
The 12-storey building contains 100 executive suites. The development brings Pegasus Hotel’s total room inventory to 230, containing room ranging from standard to deluxe. (G3)