Foreign investors need Guyanese ‘know-how’ to operate thriving operations in Guyana – GMSA Head

While Guyana may currently lack the adequate human resource capacity to man the various sectors in the country, some Private Sector stakeholders believe that foreign investors coming here, even with their vast experience and expertise, still need the input of Guyanese in order to operate thriving businesses.
This was highlighted by President of the Guyana Manufacturing and Services Association (GMSA), Rafeek Khan, during a webinar with other Private Sector players who were part of a high-level delegation led by President Dr Irfaan Ali to India in January. The webinar was hosted by the Indo-Caribbean Society.
Khan pointed out that there are many Indian companies that are eager to tap into the business opportunities available in Guyana, but noted that they have to do their due diligence before any concrete investments can be made.
According to the GMSA President, while the influx of foreign investors is good for the Guyanese economy, it is imperative that locals do not miss out on opportunities for collaboration and partnership. To this end, he challenged potential Indian investors to connect and find local partners.
“You cannot do it on your own. Many companies have tried and failed… While we are Indians in Guyana and in India alike, there are cultural barriers that we will face…Culturally, we understand certain things from experience. We understand our natural resources more than any investor who will come to Guyana. So, I do want to encourage businesses that are coming into Guyana to partner with us, seek out, connect with the GMSA, and we will connect you with businesses to build capacity.”
Khan explained that there are many Guyanese businesses with large plots of land and major infrastructure already in place. however, they may need capital, technology or skills to build out or expand into these new sectors.
“What is important is to look and see what is already there before you spend a lot of money going and buying buildings and land to develop. Look at the existing operations and see how you can partner with those operations, then if you cannot find the opportunity there, you can go beyond and try to create a new one,” he stated.
The GMSA President outlined that one of Guyana’s biggest challenges is its lack of adequate human resource capacity to service a booming economy. This challenge is twofold, in that: on the one hand, many of the traditional sectors are losing their skilled workers to the burgeoning oil and gas industry, and on the other hand, the country does not have the necessary skill sets to service this new sector and the spin-off industries it is creating here.
According to Khan, while the local Private Sector and the Government are working together to build technical capacity in the country, there is no doubt that Guyana would eventually have to import some skillset. To this end, he posited that India has a vast array of expertise that Guyana can tap into to help create the local skillset that is needed.
As a matter of fact, one of Guyana’s largest construction companies – GAICO Construction & General Services Inc. – already has experts from India working and training Guyanese.
This is according to GAICO’s Health, Safety and Environment Director, Chandini Singh, who was also part of the massive Private Sector delegation in India, and also participated in Thursday’s webinar session.
Singh had initially raised the issue of the lack of human resource capacity in Guyana. She, too, is of the view that Guyanese have special expertise about the environment here that would be beneficial to foreign investors.
“You might have similar resources, but there is something that local people know how it is in this environment…that’s the important part of partnerships. Because you would have the expertise on further developing that product [or natural resource] but then Guyanese have the expertise on the simpler form of the said product,” she noted.
Singh has recommended that there be more training and skills development programmes to build local capacity. She also suggested tapping into the experience and expertise of expats in this regard.
Meanwhile, Guyanese cricketer and businessman Steven Jacobs also gave his input on the matter during Thursday’s webinar. He noted that his main priority in joining the Guyanese contingent in India was to source a potential partnership for his venture to develop a jewellery-making school in Guyana.
According to Jacobs, who is the owner of Jacobs Jewellery and Pawn Shop as well as co-founder of First Change Builders constructing firm, his family has been in the jewellery sector for over 20 years. He noted that the gold sector, which is now Guyana’s second largest sector, is losing its skilled workers, and steps need to be taken to reverse this, especially now that the country is getting more foreign visitors, who would want to buy local jewellery.
“When persons come to Guyana, they would want a piece of Guyanese gold, so we would then need to continue this tradition and also open up [new] markets… We also know that India is one of the leading countries in terms of jewellery-making… so we want to bring them over to Guyana to teach our jewellers or potential jewellers,” Jacobs stated.