-Go-Invest says over 1000 jobs created

THE Guyana Office for Investment (Go-Investment) facilitated $89.4B in investments and $52.2B from executed investments across all platforms and sectors in 2018.
Chief Executive Officer of Go-Invest, Owen Verwey, said the figure was recorded at a time when the agency continues to build investors’ confidence and promote development opportunities that bring lasting benefits to all Guyanese

According to the year-end performance indicators, based on investor figures, these investments were expected to create 1,644 jobs when the projects are fully operational. “These new jobs and associated training opportunities will amplify Guyana’s human resource capabilities across key sectors including agriculture, light manufacturing, tourism, services, forestry and energy,” said Verwey during a press conference on Monday.
The actual number of investments were 56, 38 of which were local, 15 Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) and three joint ventures.

The FDI agreements were predominantly within the agriculture, services and manufacturing sectors, along with one in the information and communications technology sector.
Among the FDI projects were the manufacturing of pre-cast concrete construction materials, coco peat from coconut shells, ventures in transshipment and aviation, as well as business process outsourcing services sector.
Verwey said the joint venture agreements executed were in the energy, tourism and manufacturing sectors. According to investors’ projections, the value of FDI projects totalled $11.3B, while joint ventures totaled $2.3B.

According to investors’ figures, the value of local investments in 2018 was $38.5B, primarily in the agriculture, energy and light manufacturing sector. These projects were projected to create at least 1,056 jobs when fully operational.
“Go-Invest also made substantial progress in promoting Guyana’s exports in international markets in 2018. The agency matched 56 local businesses with overseas clients,” said Verwey.

The businesses were involved in the supply of gold, diamonds, coffee, coconut oil, heart-of-palm, pepper, fruit-pulp, dressed-lumber, noodles, beverages and clay brick among other products.

To complement those activities, Go-Invest completed a robust programme of inward and outward missions to explore naturally beneficial investment opportunities and implement trade-related activities aimed at obtaining new markets and increasing exports in 2018.
“This resulted in 36 Guyanese entrepreneurs in the agro-processing, mining and tourism sectors attaining direct access to selected export markets offering the best sales opportunities for their products and services,” said Verwey.

He said the missions resulted in significant gains for both large and small enterprises, with new markets secured for ventures of all sizes, from rice and other food and beverages to scented candles.
Additionally, one mission resulted in the establishment of a joint venture agreement with a Brazilian company.

IMPROVED EXPORTERS
Overall, the agency facilitated improvement of local exporters’ marketing, networking and monitoring tools and capabilities.
This, he said, involved the creation of synergistic business links, allowing local exporters to collaborate easily and securely with their international clients and build capacity in vital aspects of business, such as improving product design and quality and enhancing productivity.

Inward missions facilitated by Go-Invest in 2018 were from Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, Canada, Brazil, China, French Guiana and Aruba; these included privately organised missions.
There were also pivotal outward missions to the Caribbean, Latin America, China, Cuba, North America and others, especially to promote forestry, food products and large-scale agriculture.

“The success of the agency’s activities in 2018 was heavily based on a commitment to responsible management of funds in order to get maximum mileage from current and capital subventions amounting to $218.7M,” Verwey said.
He further added that strategic participation in trade and investment events in several nations and other key activities were based on best-value considerations.

Some of the events included the Trinidad Investment Convention, The China International Import Expo and the annual Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada.
The agency also conducted a strong promotion campaign for local food and beverages that included attendance at events like IMBIBE live 2018 in the UK; SIAL, a food and beverage show in Canada and LAC flavours in Chile, among others.

GO-Invest managed to secure 115 international leads and 56 export leads including significant leads for traditional exports like rum, as well as non-traditional exports like frozen fruit pulp.

Despite the many pluses, Verwey said there were shortfalls in the services sector which caused the agency to fall short of its $100 billion investment target.
“We expected a lot more services…we also had a slowing of due diligence process but we have to put in place the process of looking at realistic obligations,” he said.
Verwey also gave the assurance that a lot more is happening in the services sector, especially with the production of oil just a few months away.