…processing 120 investment agreements, created 2000 jobs

BOASTING the realization of nearly $6.5B in investments this year, the Guyana Office for Investments (GO-Invest) said that it is satisfied with its performances and despite its many challenges, it intends to establish a Service Provider Database for investors and numerous other initiatives to help push this country’s development.

Expressions of Interest (EoI) have been placed on the entity’s website and in the press for the development of the facility. That aside, GO-Invest will be hosting GIPEX2018, the Guyana International Petroleum Business Summit and Exhibition. The exhibition will allow for key stakeholders within Guyana’s Petroleum Sector including ministries, government organizations, associations, experts, national and international oil companies, to interact and showcase what they have to offer.

The forum is deemed important in the promotion of the country’s petroleum sector. According to the GIPEX website, “The event will lay the foundation to establish a dynamic relationship between the Ministry of Natural Resources, Guyana and the private sector, with full co-operation from other government departments; all working to make Guyana a favourable and pro-business destination, a pre-requisite for boosting economic activities and achieving development objectives.”

GIPEX 2018 is a global initiative which provides an excellent networking platform for existing petroleum companies, service providers, equipment companies and investors through which interested parties will be informed about opportunities and developments in this sector and industry, the website stated. The exhibition will be held from February 7 to 9, 2018. The Guyana Trade and Investment Exposition will be held from April 28 to 30, 2018, while Guyana will participate in the Trinidad Chamber of Commerce Trade Mission (partnership with GCCI) January 29th 2018, Inward Trade Mission – Brazilians Mid-January 2018.

Other ventures include participation in the Barbados Trade Mission to Guyana from February 11 to 14, Outward Trade and Investment Mission, Jamaica, which will be held from mid-February to the end of February and the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) to be held from March 4 to 7, 2018. But while the prospects for 2018 look bright, 2017 was a challenging year for GO-Invest. According to a statement issued to the media Monday, the entity said the challenges were “Too many, but will keep focusing on the positives; we have to address all our challenges.”

GO-Invest said there is a need to enhance staff capabilities, something which has stated. Strengthening marketing capacity is also an area of focus. Additionally, significant time and resources have been spent on due diligence and processing, while proposals and applications received require significant enhancing, the statement said.

Meanwhile, Chief Executive Officer of the entity, Owen Verwey, during a year-end press conference, told reporters that the entity’s board of directors has expressed satisfaction with the agency’s accomplishments for 2017. “We had a board meeting last Friday and that was expressed by the members, and it was asked to be put on record. For myself, I set high standards and I drive towards it…I am satisfied. Could there have been more? Possibly yes. This is an interactive process and an evolving process and also it is a government entity”, he stated. According to Verwey, some of the accomplishments included 120 investment agreements being processed; 2,000 jobs created, and nearly $6.5B in

investments; over 46 agricultural applications were processed with 500 plus jobs created; participation in several Regional Agriculture and Commercial Expositions (RACE); over 40 local businesses facilitated through foreign exhibitions and missions, approved or agreed in principle with several Memorandum of Understandings (MoUs) with the Guyana Lands and Surveys Commission, the Guyana Revenue Authority and the Central Planning and Processioning Authority, among others, to facilitate and process investment incentives.

Meanwhile, Chairman of Go-Invest Board of Directors, Patricia Bacchus, disclosed that the Board is satisfied with the agency’s efforts for the year and predicted that 2018 will be better. GO-Invest was established under the Public Corporations Act in 1994 as a semi-autonomous body and comes under the direct purview of the Office of the President. The CEO answers to a Board of Directors which is composed of representatives from both the private and public sectors.

GO-Invest is divided into two divisions: one responsible for Investment Facilitation and Promotion and the other for export promotion. With these divisions, the agency offers a full complement of services to local and foreign investors, and exporters. Its mission is to contribute to Guyana’s economic development by promoting and facilitating local and foreign private-sector investment and exports in accordance with the country’s approved investment and export strategies.