Guyana must not limit ability to be transformative by size of population – Pres Ali tells Saudi Investment Summit 

…says Guyana is leapfrogging into 2030 and beyond

President Dr Irfaan Ali on Tuesday stated that despite Guyana’s small population, it does not limit its ability to be transformative and compete on a global scale.
The Guyanese Head of State was at the time participating in a high-level panel discussion at the ninth edition of the Future Investment Initiative (FII) being held in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, where he emphasised that Guyana is a small state with a global impact.

“We are shaped by the way we think, and we are shaped by the boldness in our thinking. If we limit our ability to be transformative and our ability to innovate by the size of our population and the size of our country, then we will never be able to be competitive. That is why investment in human capital, technology, and building the infrastructure to support the competitiveness of our economy is an important part of staying alive and competing,” President Ali noted.
Held under the theme “Is Humanity Headed in the Right Direction?” the panel brought together an elite group of global leaders, including Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame, Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro, Albania’s Prime Minister Edi Rama, Pakistan’s Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif, FIFA President Gianni Infantino, and Bridgewater Associates Founder Ray Dalio.
The discussion was moderated by the Chairman of the Executive Committee and Acting CEO of the FII Institute, Richard Attias.

President Ali further highlighted Guyana’s remarkable environmental and economic story, noting that notwithstanding its status as one of the world’s smallest nations by population, Guyana is playing a monumental role in global sustainability.
“We have one of the lowest deforestation rates in the world, and we store 19.5 gigatonnes of carbon. We have a standing forest that constitutes 89 per cent of the country. This is a country that is keeping the world alive, and yet we say we don’t know.”
“We live in a world that has lost almost 60 per cent of its biodiversity in the last 50 to 60 years, yet Guyana has kept its biodiversity almost intact. We have one of the highest biodiversity rates by density in Guyana, yet so many people are unaware of the country with the highest diversity density.”
He lamented that while the world often recognises Guyana as one of the fastest-growing economies due to its massive oil discoveries, far less attention is given to its leadership in climate resilience and biodiversity conservation.
According to the President, this is a case of misplaced priorities that needs to be realigned so that sustainability becomes the focus.

“Here’s a country that has kept the forest intact, and we don’t know, and that is the problem. We don’t know because the direction in which we are going is different from the challenges the world is facing. If I ask you which is the fastest-growing economy in the world and which country has some of the largest oil reserves discovered, then suddenly all the investors know Guyana. Same country, different script. So, I believe we have to examine our priorities.”
“If we try to lock our thinking only into the big country syndrome or developed world syndrome, we will not allow ourselves to understand what the rest of the world is doing, and the rest of the world are all looking for the solutions in terms of the challenges we face, and that is Guyana.”
Speaking on the country’s future trajectory, Dr Ali underscored that Guyana is “leapfrogging into the 2030s and beyond world”, investing strategically in technology, artificial intelligence, digitisation, education, and healthcare.
Nonetheless, the country continues to strike a balance between economic expansion and environmental preservation. “In our case, we are now able to have energy that would be competitive and allow us to compete in an energy infrastructure, of which digitisation and AI will be a big part. But while we are doing that, we are also investing in traditional sectors – ensuring that we position ourselves as a food capital of the world, keeping our forests standing for the sake of humanity, and building the most skilled population possible,” the President noted.
Drawing comparisons to Qatar’s transformation, the Guyanese leader explained that Guyana, though small, is leveraging its newfound oil wealth to accelerate development and attract global talent, technology, and investment.
“We recently discovered oil, and that has really ignited the rate and pace of transformation. That has allowed us to make the right set of investments in human capital, healthcare, education, and technology,” he said.
On this note, he reiterated his vision of a Guyana that, despite its size, is shaping global conversations on sustainability, economic transformation, and innovation.
“We are investing to ensure that we have the most skilled population, and to do all of this, we know that, like Qatar, we have to bring in talent, we have to bring in people, we have to bring in investment, and we have to bring in technology. So that is what we are doing. We don’t have the time or the human resource asset in terms of numbers to start from scratch. We have to bring in the models that are proven and then advance them for our own development,” he added.