By Vanessa Braithwaite

PRIVATE investors who have shown interest in establishing companies and businesses in Region 10 are calling for an end to the slothful process involved in the start-up of operations.They have taken their cries to administrative officials, and those officials are calling upon the entities responsible to have the processes expedited, as Region 10 is in dire need of investment opportunities.

Region 10 Chairman Renis Morian has said that a number of these investors have already passed through entities such as the Ministry of the Presidency, Ministry of Business and Ministry of Communities, and have received confirmation; but the process remains dormant, as the documents are resting at the Ministry of Finance for duty free concessions, among other things.

“I’m appealing to the Minister of Finance and the officers responsible for this situation. In Region 10 we want this to be fast-tracked, we don’t want people coming to Guyana for investment and they are going through a whole lot of bureaucracy, holding up the process. The residents of Region 10 are ready, and we are waiting for these investments,” Morian posited.

The National Industrial and Commercial Investments Ltd (NICIL) has also received some blame for slowing up the process, and investors requesting land to establish their businesses are claiming that they are being “pushed around”.

One investor who, since 2013, has expressed interest in establishing the franchise of Burger King in Linden, has not yet been granted land, according to Morian. Once the business is established, 30 Lindeners should be in its employ.

Regional Chairman Morian had this to say: “All lands belong to the Government and people of Guyana, and if persons come to Region 10 to invest, we, at the level of the RDC, will give them with no objection.”

Investments could yield economic results and provide employment for the residents of Region 10. Among several persons who have shown interest and have commenced the process of investing in the region are: a television assembling facility, a modern hotel complex, and a trucking facility.

The RDC is also exploring the possibility of having a 20-million-dollar agro sector investment set up to plant, process and market products. In Kwakwani, an overseas-based Guyanese has expressed interest in investing in a tourism venture which will see yachting services being offered at the Kwakwani waterfront. Once all goes well, it would provide employment for 30 persons from within the region.

Region 10 officials are anticipating the fortunes that these investments will bring to an unemployment rate that is on average 70%.

President Granger recently charged the diaspora, during the Jubilee celebrations in New York, to return home and invest, as Guyana can no longer afford to sustain itself by the use of the ‘six sisters’ — rice, sugar, bauxite, gold, timber and fish.

The President has said that these are not sufficient during this era to move the economy to where it ought to be. “We need not be poor again,” the President said. “It is better to have Guyanese companies; you can invest and prosper as readily as foreigners. You are family, please,” he had told the attendees of the State dinner.