Key and imminent operational changes that target the provision of enhanced services to potential investors are part of a menu of measures aimed at the modernisation of the Guyana Office for Investment (Go-Invest).
Chairman of the Go-Invest Board of Directors Keith Burrowes has identified the significant enhancement of the entity’s human resource capacity, building on its existing technical capacity, developing a sophisticated and reliable investment data base and “taking Guyana to investors rather
than waiting for investors to come to us” as being among the key changes that are being implemented to enhance the work of the agency. Additionally, Burrowes said that physical changes will also take place with the Go-Invest Secretariat in order to make room for a communications centre designed to facilitate communication for investors wishing to hold quick consultations with partners overseas and a facility to house a central investment database.
This is the first significant transformation that Go-Invest will be experiencing since its creation as a semi-autonomous agency under the purview of the President in 1994. Burrowes, who is also a presidential adviser told Stabroek Business that while the entity will retain its role as the primary point of contact for investors the changes represent “a significant upgrading exercise” designed to equip Go-Invest to better meet the challenges associated with its responsibilities. “I suppose that the best way to express what is happening at Go-Invest is to see it as a modernisation of the entity,” Burrowes said.
Go-Invest was established to serve as a primary contact for investors and to liaise with state agencies throughout the investment process. Additionally, the entity was designed to give guidance to potential investors on the steps necessary establish businesses in Guyana, provide information on incentives available to investors, develop profiles on investment opportunities and assist in the coordination of joint ventures between local and foreign entities.
While the entity’s Board Chairman says it will retain its traditional functions he added that it will also now be seeking to create a comprehensive investor database that will be available to other entities involved in investment initiatives.
Meanwhile, Burrowes said the changes unfolding at Go-Invest are a response to government’s determination to redouble its efforts to interest both local and foreign investors in the country’s prospects.
Go-Invest, meanwhile, will be introducing a new communication tool, a giant illuminated map of Guyana which Burrowes said will contain various types of “well defined and pertinent investor information.”
One of the key operational changes, “going forward,” according to Burrowes, has to do with what he said was the entity’s approach to engaging potential investors. He said that by and large Go-Invest had become accustomed to waiting for potential investors to come to the agency. “Part of the transformation will have to do with Go-Invest teams “going out there, engaging potential investors in the region and further afield, taking Guyana to them.” That apart, Go-Invest functionaries will be mandated to provide potential investors with information that extends beyond their particular areas of interest. “Rather than simply engage investors on the basis of their own particular investment interests, Go-Invest will now be seeking to ensure that, simultaneously, investors have an awareness of the country’s broader investment profile. What all of this means is that our work will now have to be informed by a great deal more planning,” Burrowes said.
The process of modernising Go-Invest will include “the modernizing of systems and mechanisms for preparing and presenting information that will focus on providing clear and comprehensive access for investors to enable them to make decisions more easily and in a much shorter period of time.
And in keeping with what the agency’s Board Chairman said was government’s commitment to providing added incentives for investors to make investment choices in Guyana, Go-Invest will embark on the creation of a facility that will enable investors to communicate readily and quickly with persons outside Guyana with whom they may need to consult quickly and discreetly whilst engaging Go-Invest.
