Govt aiming to drive more investments with upcoming Agri-Expo – Mustapha

Government is preparing for another Agri-Investment Forum and Expo next month, and one of the key goals in this 2023 edition is to connect investors with areas in which there is potential for success, thereby expanding the sector further to achieve Vision 25 by 2025.

The Agri-Investment Forum and Expo will be held at the Arthur Chung Conference Center (ACCC) during the period October 20-22, under the theme “Achieving Vision 25 by 2025”. Agriculture Minister Zulfikar Mustapha on Tuesday visited the ACCC to conduct a site visit, prior to which he met with members of the Expo’s Planning and Coordinating Committee to get a status report on several critical areas, such as registration, participation, finances, and logistics.
“This thing is to ensure that we drive investment. We encourage people to get on board. For example, this agro-processing industry, we are encouraging that. Last Friday, we commissioned an agro-processing facility in Charity. At the end of this year, we might have about 13 of those facilities,” he disclosed.
A number of Heads of State within the Caricom region are expected to attend the event, and the Minister said several corporate bodies and investors have also registered and will be participating in this year’s event.
It is anticipated that this expo will be bigger than the previous ones, given the successes of the previous Agri Investment Forums and Expos that were held in Guyana and Trinidad.
Last month, Agriculture Minister Mustapha had indicated that interest from foreign companies is high in available opportunities in Guyana’s agriculture sector. He had noted the importance of Guyana finding the right balance of evolving its agriculture sector in line with global norms while also nurturing the unique strengths of Guyana’s traditional agriculture.
This is the third Agri Investment Forum and Expo. The previous two editions were both held last year, one in Guyana and the other in Trinidad. During the first agri expo in May 2022, a number of regional agencies participated in round-table discussions following the opening of the event;
donor agencies worked directly with Caribbean Community (Caricom) countries to discuss their options and interests; and among the regional leaders who travelled to Guyana for the three-day event were the Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago, Dr Keith Rowley, and Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley.
Other Caricom leaders who attended the Agri Forum and Expo included Antigua and Barbuda Prime Minister Gaston Browne; Prime Minister of Belize, Johnny Briceno; Dominica Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit; and Premier of Montserrat, Joseph Easton Taylor-Farrell.
Moreover, Deputy Prime Minister of Bahamas, Chester Cooper, and Agriculture Ministers from around the region had attended the event. (G12)