Efforts by the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI) to help create a more convivial environment for both local and foreign investment in the Guyana economy will see the chamber seeking to “significantly intensify” the lobby for adjustment to the national legislative framework on intellectual property.
“We cannot anticipate the kind of improvement in our investment climate which we may think we are entitled to expect, except we revisit our investment code in terms of determining how it applies to both foreign and domestic investment and whether the incentives that you are going to give are adequate,” GCCI President Lance Hinds said.
Asserting that the investment climate is “an evolving one,” Hinds added that “the time is ripe to go back to the investment code to determine whether the incentives that you are offering can attract the kinds of investments you are hoping for.”
And according to Hinds any contemplation of legislative adjustments in the national investment regime must of necessity take account of an intellectual property framework that will protect the twenty-first century knowledge-based industries that may have an investment interest in Guyana. “You have to put legislative mechanisms in place to protect those kinds of investments,” Hinds said.
“Business people, regardless of whether they are domestic or foreign, must be provided with the comfort that assures them that they are working in an environment in which their intellectual assets are protected,” Hinds said.
