Local businesses to benefit from incentives
Chief Executive officer of the Guyana Office for Investment (GO-Invest), Peter Ramsaroop
Chief Executive officer of the Guyana Office for Investment (GO-Invest), Peter Ramsaroop

…including duty-free concessions, says GO-Invest CEO

GUYANA has been deemed a hotspot for investment, given the growth trajectory of the economy, and with major foreign investors taking notice, the government is keen on ensuring that all local investors have opportunities to benefit and grow.
This is according to Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Guyana Office for Investment (GO-Invest), Peter Ramsaroop, who noted that, over the last three years, approximately 56 local businesses have benefitted from fiscal incentives, while an additional 35 applied and were allocated industrial and/or commercial lands to aid in the expansion and development of their business.

Ramsaroop, during an interview with this newspaper, stated that GO-Invest is working to introduce several incentives this year specifically for local business investors. He pointed out that one major initiative local investors can look forward to in 2021 is duty free concessions for their businesses.
Ramsaroop explained that these concessions would be applicable to equipment and machinery that will be used to expand and modernise operations. He noted that this concession would allow the businesses not just to increase their output capabilities but will also allow them to have increase overall profits.
Ramsaroop indicated that the businesses which would benefit from duty free concessions include those engaged in beverage manufacturing; packaging manufacturing, value added agro-processing and packaging; and commercial printing. Additionally, local businesses engaged in agriculture related activities such as poultry production, rice production, cash crops and integrated farming, are also set to benefit.

GO-Invest is also looking at tax incentives to promote continued sustainability in addition to ensuring that local businesses have the ability and capacity to partner with foreign investors.
“We are aggressively pursuing local companies having the opportunity to partner with foreign direct investors, so we are fostering joint ventures. So when we see a foreign investor come in looking for expertise in a particular area and we know of local businesses, we bring them together to see if they want to do a joint venture as expansion,” Ramsaroop stated.
The GO-Invest CEO explained that the government is working to ensure that both local and foreign investors have the opportunity for growth and expansion, noting that the government is of the unwavering belief that Guyanese citizens and local investors have equal opportunities to benefit from Guyana’s economy as those of foreign investors.
“There is no differentiation between a foreign investor and a local investor from our perspective; they have the same rights, the same incentives and the notion that foreign investors are coming in and taking our resources, our local investors have the same opportunities to expand their operation, that we are finding more and more of them doing that, fining capital to expand and so,” Ramsaroop explained. Meanwhile Ramsaroop also noted that although the COVID-19 pandemic has severely impacted businesses around the world, local businesses continue to be resilient and committed to achieving their goals, adding that the government intends to continue supporting local growth and will continue to partner with these businesses throughout 2021.

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