GO-Invest, AmCham ink agreement to promote local content, int’l trade

The Guyana Office for Investment (GO-Invest) and the American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham) have forged a new partnership, in establishing mutual grounds to benefit from trade and economic activity in the country, while also looking at local content.
The Memorandum of Understanding was signed by AmCham President, Zulfikar Ally and Chief Executive Officer of GO-Invest, Dr Peter Ramsaroop.
It seeks to promote mutually beneficial international trade, local content development, Indigenous-international business partnerships, investment conferences and Foreign Direct Investment (FDI).
“Both AmCham and GO-Invest remain committed to shared prosperity and the development of Guyana through mutual beneficial cooperation,” a joint statement indicated.
Within the past few months, GO-Invest has signed onto varying partnerships with the Private Sector community, enabling local investments to flourish. Just over one week ago, a similar MoU was signed with the Private Sector Commission (PSC), aimed at better positioning local businesses to capitalise on investment opportunities that will emerge in the petroleum economy.
“Our agenda is to work very closely with the local entities in Guyana to promote investments. With that, we have discussed and partnered with the Private Sector to ensure that our local companies know about what incentives Government can give to the Private Sector; how we can bring them together for the international foreign direct investors coming in; how we can promote joint ventures, how we can promote different activities within the Private Sector,” Ramsaroop was quoted as saying.
In December, another was formed between the Guyana Manufacturing and Services Association (GMSA) as a mechanism of cooperation to facilitate business development support including timely access to incentives for the manufacturing and services sectors, promoting joint ventures and partnerships between local and foreign investors, and undertaking joint activities aimed at investment promotion.
GMSA President, Shyam Nokta had indicated then that these partnerships are timely, considering the imminent expansion of Guyana’s economy and the opening up of the country to investments, both local and foreign. In the past, he noted local businesses have experienced frustration in accessing support and incentives.
“Considering the focus being placed on local content, we are keen to work with GO-Invest to ensure there is partnering of foreign investors with local businesses. Importantly too is the need to address the uneven playing field in the oil and gas sector where Guyanese businesses have not been able to fully benefit from the concessions and incentives that foreign companies are able to benefit from,” Nokta said, adding that this is a major area of concern the GMSA will be taking up with GO-Invest so as to allow Guyanese businesses to compete in oil and gas and not be displaced in other sectors.
With Guyana on the cusp of unprecedented economic growth, the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) Government is pushing to diversify the economy. Against this backdrop, President Dr Irfaan Ali had announced that his Government will give more incentives to push Private Sector investments in the health tourism sector.
It was at the Canada-Guyana Chamber of Commerce launch that he urged foreign investors to explore opportunities outside the oil and gas sector for investments. He posited that his Administration will create “new types of businesses”. (G12)