GYIXP is a start. Now we must back local entrepreneurship

Dear Editor,
The launch of Guyana’s first Internet Exchange Point (GYIXP) is an important moment in our national digital story. As Prime Minister Mark Phillips stated, it improves speed, reduces latency, cuts bandwidth costs, and allows local data to stay local. This is all essential groundwork for the connected and productive society we say we want.
The country has made visible progress in digital infrastructure. We have seen the liberalisation of the telecoms sector and the expansion of broadband access, including to hinterland communities. Yet in practice, our posture toward technology remains cautious. Many of our organisations, institutions, and citizens still make decisions that reflect outdated assumptions about our capacity and context.
This is not simply a cultural lag. It is structural. Entrepreneurs who are ready to solve real problems often encounter financial systems that remain risk-averse and rigid. Commercial banks continue to demand collateral equal to the size of the loan requested, even for productive ventures. Cumbersome compliance requirements, often justified under anti-money laundering rules, are frequently based on interpretations rather than hard rules. This has been acknowledged at the regional level, including during recent hearings before the United States House Committee on Caribbean de-risking.
As a result, capital remains underutilised, talent is discouraged, and new productivity is delayed.
We cannot build a digital economy with analogue mindsets. The issue is not only that we have lacked infrastructure, but that we still behave as though we do.
The Prime Minister rightly stated that GYIXP can exponentially increase internet-based entrepreneurship and national development opportunities. That is not a hopeful idea. It is a statement of fact. Entrepreneurship is the mechanism through which infrastructure becomes services, savings become investments, and aspirations become jobs.
We must now ask serious questions. Who is building with this infrastructure? Who is supporting those builders? What must change for our financial, business, and public institutions to take full advantage of the systems we now have?
This is not about praising or opposing any administration. It is about alignment. Our investments in digital infrastructure must be matched by a posture of urgency, innovation, and coordinated action.
If we are serious about development, then we must change the way we make decisions.
The infrastructure is here. The question now is what we will do with it.

Yours sincerely,
Emille Giddings