Guyana is ripe with opportunities – Finance Minister tells Indian delegation

– talks up advantages of geographical continuity for investors

In a bid to attract investors, Senior Minister with responsibility for Finance, Dr Ashni Singh told the visiting high-level delegation from India of the bountiful opportunities that are available in Guyana and the advantages such investments will bring to them.

External Affairs Minister of India, Dr Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, is leading a delegation from his country that comprises representatives from the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) including its Chairman, Jai Shroff.
On Saturday, an India-Guyana business roundtable event was hosted at the Pegasus Suites and Corporate Centre in Georgetown with visiting officials. The engagement was aimed at creating partnerships and investment opportunities as well as discussing areas of economic cooperation, and strengthening bilateral ties between the two countries.
During his remarks, Minister Singh pointed out that the current and next phase of the relationship between Guyana and India will be defined by the economic and business ties that are being forged.

He noted that Guyana’s blooming oil and gas industry has catapulted positive spillovers into nearly all other economic sectors in the country, and the Government has been cultivating the conditions necessary to secure a widely diversified economy.
To this end, he stated that the visit of the Indian delegation is “timely and opportune. He noted that Guyana presents a unique opportunity for Indian businesses looking to establish a presence or expand their presence in this hemisphere.
“Irrespective of what you do in India, whether you manufacture the paperclip or the aeroplane, or whether you produce goods and services, whichever sector you’re operating in, if you’re looking for external opportunities then Guyana is ripe with such opportunities…,” Dr Singh posited.
Dr Singh encouraged Indian businesses, particularly manufacturers and producers, to establish operations in Guyana and take advantage of the duty-free movement of goods within the Caribbean Community (Caricom) common market as well as other trade agreements that the regional grouping has.
“An investment in Guyana or the development of a trade, commercial or investment relationship or presence in Guyana… is not to be viewed only as a presence in Guyana [especially] because of our geographical contiguity with continental South America… Suriname and beyond; Brazil and the rest of South America and Latin America,” he noted.
Dr Singh added, “…as a result of being a member of Caricom, and producer based in Guyana enjoys privileged access to Caricom Markets and to other external markets with whom Caricom has trade or economic agreements.”
He further highlighted that Guyana also enjoys the peculiar advantage of present first-movers’ opportunities. In fact, he explained that with Suriname also now developing oil and gas potential, a number of the companies that are establishing their operations in Guyana see this move as an opportunity to not only serve the local market but also other neighbouring markets in this part of the world.
In fact, he indicated that many of the service providers to United States oil major – ExxonMobil, who is currently producing oil offshore Guyana, have declared that they see Guyana as the centre of their operations for Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, Columbia and elsewhere.
“And so, a presence in Guyana is not only to be viewed from the perspective of the opportunities within the domestic boundaries in Guyana but a presence in Guyana is to be viewed in the context of opportunities that lie within our neighbours, within the entire of the Caribbean, and North and South America, and beyond,” the Finance Minister informed the Indian delegation.
According to Dr Singh, there are also other advantages of doing business in Guyana for Indian companies including the linguistic advantage, especially with Guyana being the only English-speaking nation in South America.
“I know a lot of Indian companies are looking to establish a presence in Latin America… [We’re] the only English-speaking country on mainland South America so automatically, Indian enterprises establishing a presence in Guyana will find an environment from that perspective. And also, from the perspective of our Commonwealth, constitutional, jurisprudential and legal environments, which will be very familiar to Indian businesses,” he stated.
Meanwhile, the Indian External Affairs Minister said at the event that strong economics will complement shared values in taking the India-Guyana partnership to a new level. Minister Jaishankar added that the presence of the CII delegation is also a reflection of India’s growing engagement with Latin America.
In fact, CII Chairman, Jai Shroff, outlined a series of areas with the potential for enhanced bilateral economic cooperation between Guyana and India, including oil and gas, which he said has immense scope for cooperation and collaboration.
Other areas highlighted by the Indian official were agriculture and food processing, healthcare and pharmaceuticals, Information and Communications Technology (ICT), education and tourism.
“Going forward, we look forward to bilateral engagements that go beyond trade investment and encompass innovation, entrepreneurship and sustainable development. We must examine these altogether, and to build close equations, and to derive mutually productive outcomes,” Shroff posited.
He further indicated interest by CII members in industrial developments here and forging partnerships with Guyanese stakeholders.
The CII has also signed cooperation agreements with Guyana’s Private Sector Commission and the Guyana Oil and Gas Energy Chamber (GOGEC).
According to its website, CII is a non-government, not-for-profit, industry-led and industry-managed organisation, with around 9000 members from the private and public sectors, including SMEs and MNCs, and an indirect membership of over 300,000 enterprises from 286 national and regional sectoral industry bodies.
CII works to create and sustain an environment conducive to the development of India, partnering with industry, Government and civil society, through advisory and consultative processes.
Saturday’s business roundtable event was also attended by Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Minister Hugh Todd, Minister within the Public Works Ministry Deodat Indar; Indian High Commissioner to Guyana, Dr KJ Srinivasa; Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Guyana Office for Investment, Dr Peter Ramsaroop, along with other Government and private sector officials. (G8)