Diaspora offered attractive investment packages – President

President David Granger said his Administration would be willing to make available a suitable package for

Guyanese within the Diaspora, should they indicate an interest in helping to propel the wheels of the country’s economy.

He said such pathways will do well for all Guyanese both here and abroad. The Head of State was at the time in conversation with journalists on Thursday, during the taping of his weekly “Public interest “programme.

He was giving an overview of his recent visit to New York, where Guyanese there hosted a mini celebration to commemorate Guyana’s 50th independence anniversary.

His visit to New York was however, a follow up to a conference held by Business Minster Dominic Gaskins along with Public Security Minister Khemraj Ramajttan and Telecommunication Minister Cathy Hughes, who all shared with the Diaspora business opportunities that are readily available to them and also learning from them what interests they might have, in getting things moving along.

According to President Granger, while there have been no formal responses as yet, Government is prepared to offer what is usually requested in this regard.

“Usually people look for tax holidays, waivers on equipment and the ability to repatriate their profits”, the Head of State said.

“We have offered waivers before to new companies. We want to offer them a level playing field. So at this point in time, I cannot confirm a package. The Minister of Business has been in contact with potential investors, but let’s sees what they are asking for before we make up our minds. Nothing that has been offered to any new company would be denied to Guyanese investors,” the President promised.

Granger added that while the potential investors may also want access to land and other resources, they must also be committed to bringing items from the Diaspora, including transportation and capital.

The Head of State said he had engaged with New York alone during his trip to the US. The United States and North America he said, probably has more than half of Guyana’s population.

“Guyana is a country divided in a whole… It is my view that the Diaspora is probably larger in size, I am quite sure that the amount of Guyanese in the US is large,” he said.

With that fact in place, President Granger said the Diaspora will definitely have more capital to invest, as most of them earn more than the average Guyanese. He said they also have expertise, since most of them work in industries and services in the US and elsewhere in North America.

“I appealed to them for capital and expertise. I don’t think many of them will come back, what I asked them to consider is the possibility of investment. I told them that other countries and nationalities have been investing in Guyana. So yes, that is my pitch”. He said he is satisfied that there is a high degree of interest amount Guyanese Americans or Canadians to at least send capital to help Guyana.

“I see many of them operating tourist industries to bring people to Guyana to see this abundant flora and fauna. It is a magnificent prize that we possess,” he said.

Crime and potential investors

Asked about the perceived high crime rate and the effect that could have on potential investors, the President said he does not see the issue as having any impression on those who would want to invest here.

“Maybe it’s high for some persons, but it is lower, 16 per cent lower than what it was last year, so there is some spectacular crime, but serious crimes are actually being reduced,” the Head of State said, continuing that several measures have already been taken by his Administration within the last 12 months to reduce the crime rate.

“In terms of the deployment of Police, Operation Dragnet, Guyanese are safer now, than they were two years ago. I don’t think that is a serious criticism. We are working on it, I agree more can be done, but we are bringing the crime rate down”.

He said he is interested in transparency and in the lawful conduct of transactions, between the Government and the Private Sector and other investors. He said he recently told the Private Sector that they needed to be careful about criticising Government excessively since because corruption come from private businessmen. “We have to bring down criminality among person who is rouged businessmen; we have to stamp it out,” he said