The United States Embassy in Georgetown is collaborating with the local private sector and the New York-based Guyanese and American Business and Professionals Council (GABPC) to seek to create more opportunities for commercial and investment cooperation between businessmen in Guyana and the United States. And according to United States Ambassador to Guyana John Jones the primary aim of the collaborative initiative is to “match Guyanese businesses that are looking for buyers, suppliers or investors with businesses in the United States.”
Delivering the feature address at the April 30 luncheon hosted by the Guyana Manufacturing and Services Association (GMSA), Jones said that the US embassy here has been involved in gathering information locally on businesses that are interested in connecting with entrepreneurs in the United States while the GABPC has been involved in searching its contacts in the New York area to find businessmen and potential investors “who might be interested in the opportunities available in Guyana.”
Describing the initiative as “a genuine attempt to try something new” to strengthen business ties between Guyana and the United States, Jones told the businessmen attending the luncheon that while assurances could not be given to every Guyanese seeking an American business partner, suppliers or investors were being encouraged to contact the embassy’s Economic Section.
Part of the mission of the GABPC is to support small businesses seeking to overcome hurdles. The organization which is run by a number of prominent Guyanese resident in New York has partnered with a number of New York-based organizations to undertake philanthropic and community-based projects.
Meanwhile, Jones also cited the US-funded Guyana Trade and Investment Service (GTIS) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) as two organizations that continue to symbolize US support for economic growth in Guyana.
He said that over the past four years USAID had spent more than US$7m to support a market-led approach to economic growth in collaboration with the private sector and the Government of Guyana while GTIS has worked with the local agricultural, wood-processing and aquaculture sectors, enabling them to build facilities, utilise the latest technologies and secure access to markets for new high-value products. Additionally, Jones said that GTIS had been instrumental in bringing in “outside investors” and had helped to “line up investors for projects that will benefit Guyanese”.
Meanwhile, Jones told the GMSA luncheon that the United States expects to invest some US$24m in programmes aimed at, among other things, “promoting market-led economic growth in Guyana.” He said that while there had been calls for the United States to commit more resources in some areas, Washington would only be inclined to invest resources “where it feels that it is likely to get the best return on its investments. Jones said that in circumstances where the United States does not “see sufficient commitment by our partners in a particular area, it will be hesitant to put additional resources into that area.”
