Several Barbadian business persons are ready to invest in Guyana’s economy, with some alliances almost concrete following an investment seminar held here in September.
A sizeable Bajan private sector delegation led by the island’s Deputy Prime Minister Mia Mottley came to have a firsthand brief of the country’s investment environment with the hope of forming alliances which leading to long-term investments. The seminar, which was organised by the Guyana Office for Investment was hosted in the same week as the GuyExpo trade fair and focused mostly on opportunities in the agriculture and tourism sectors.
The Barbados Investment and Development Corporation (BIDC) which attended the meeting, has since said that not only are investors eager about opportunities here but they are looking to formalise agreements. Once officially formalized, the agreements should see major possibilities for the agriculture and forestry sectors and for the wildlife trade, a BIDC official told this newspaper in a telephone interview from Barbados on Tuesday.
The official said that only recently, members held a wrap-up meeting, which discussed in detail the future plans and prospects of investing here, and a number of concerns were raised. The representative said the shipping system was the most prevalent concern as, over the years, Bajan investors in Guyana have been faced with the challenge of a sometimes slothful shipping system. “The time it takes to get the stuff off the wharf and this could be hazardous especially for fish, for instance,” she explained. “They mentioned too the training of more persons to prepare documentation for shipment and some attention should also be paid to packaging before shipment of exports and there may be some problem with regards to persons being aware of the exact schedules of ships, but this may be a communication problem,” she added.
The official said that many of Barbados’s big businesses used Guyanese products since it is more cost productive to import from Guyana. She said more businesses were interested in importing most, if not all, of their raw material from Guyana and that the demand for Guyana wood was still a big thing in Barbados. She opined that more investors would be interested in this.
Some business persons said they were also interested in importing animals from Guyana. However, they are concerned about the absence of a reliable and dependable quarantine system. The BIDC official acknowledged that while there was a quarantine at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport more still needed to be done, particularly in wake of the country’s wide borders. “Guyana is attached to other countries because of its wide borders and so is open to so much since diseases could spread faster from animals of neighbouring countries to the animals there,” she said. The official said though many persons were interested and eager in this regard; improvements in this area may heighten any step forward.
Productive
Meanwhile, investor and Chief Executive Officer of JACZS consultants, Carlos Haynes, who along with his partner is concluding an agreement with a local counterpart for investment in the aquaculture sector, is excited about his venture and has described his negotiations so far as “extremely productive.” Haynes is investing in a local fish processing company, which will result in more fish being exported to Barbados. He said the market for fish in Barbados was lucrative since seafood was in high demand from high-end hotels and restaurants. “Fish in Barbados is big business and with the whole drive to eat healthier more people are buying fish and so fish will remain big business,” Haynes said during a telephone interview with this newspaper. He is in the final stages of negotiations in this investment.
Mottley underscored the importance of Guyana’s agricultural sector to the region, during the delegation’s visit here. She had said that the region’s rising food import bill which rests at US$3B, was unsustainable.
To this end, Mottley said she did not want the investment seminar to be a one-off event and the economic affairs and development minister had said that the private sector must find a way to ensure that there is always a platform to explore opportunities here.
