Assuria, a Surinamese insurance company, has opened two companies in Guyana – Assuria Life Inc and Assuria General Inc – hoping to fill the void left by the exit of Clico; and President Donald Ramotar sees this collaboration as an example of countries in the region investing in each other’s economies.
The two companies have commenced operations in Guyana and will be aiming to expand the range of services already on offer here.
“Now we can speak about investment in the region and in each other’s economies,” Ramotar said. “There are so many things that we have in common with Suriname and with the rest of the Caribbean and what we want to do now is pin them down with more concrete type of events [such as this],” he said. “This is one event that will go a far way towards promoting regional integration,” he said.
Addressing an audience at the Pegasus, Dick Wesenhagen of Assuria said that his company largest insurance company in Suriname and it sells all kinds of insurance products – fire, liability, medical, life, among others and is listed on the Suriname stock exchange.
“With the launching of Assuria Guyana today a dream has come true,” Wesenhagen said. He said that somewhere in the second quarter of 2009, Bish Panday “walked into the office of my colleague in Paramaribo to talk about some business he had placed with our company.” “He made a remark about opportunities for insurance in Guyana since the Clico collapse,” he said.
“It was then that I realised that this could be the opportunity to make the dream come true,” Wesenhagen said. “Within a few months a delegation from our company came to Guyana on fact finding mission. Their conclusion was that Guyana was developing well and had a bright future,” he said.
He said that in July 2009 the company filed its first application for an insurance licence in Guyana. He said that in February 2012 the company received news that the Government of Guyana had signed the licence for the company to commence their operations in this country.
