Guyana remains open to investment from within Caricom, according to President David Granger, who is confident of interest.
“I am sure that they are interested. I am sure that they will be able to take a message back to their countrymen in the business sector to see Guyana and Suriname as a new horizon for development in agriculture, [and] tourism. We have got the best eco-tourism product on the continent. So, I expect that in years to come, we will be seeing a lot of development with our Caribbean colleagues,” Granger said on Wednesday on the sidelines of the 37th Caricom Heads of Government Conference in Georgetown.
Granger was expected to accompany one fellow regional leader into the hinterland yesterday to show the possibilities which exist for investment.
He asserted that in the next decade, Guyana’s economy could be the beacon of Caricom. He noted that there are Brazilians, Russians, Chinese and Canadians already investing here and questioned why the nationals of Caricom countries cannot be added to the list.
Asked about Guyana playing a greater role in a different kind of Caricom in the next ten years, he said that the headquarters are located here and “we are working to resolve all of the difficulties that might have impeded growth. I told the heads today that Guyana and Suriname together are bigger than Germany, so they must regard these two large Caricom states as being part of the hinterland of the Caribbean and we are open for business… open for investment… development and we are all part of one community …I want to see us develop together.”
Granger also spoke on the “significant” oil finds by the ExxonMobil Corporation and reiterated government’s hope to use expected revenues from the development of the petroleum sector to invest in infrastructure and education.
Oil exploration conducted in May last year and last month uncovered recoverable deposits of at least 800 million each. The discoveries were made in the Stabroek Block, which has been claimed by Venezuela.
In a press release on June 30, the ExxonMobil Corporation announced that drilling results from the Liza-2 well, the second exploration well in the Stabroek Block offshore Guyana, confirmed a world-class find with a recoverable deposit of between 800 million and 1.4 billion oil-equivalent barrels.
“We are excited by the results of a production test of the Liza-2 well, which confirms the presence of high-quality oil from the same high-porosity sandstone reservoirs that we saw in the Liza-1 well completed in 2015,” said Steve Greenlee, president of the ExxonMobil Exploration Company.
In May last year, the company had announced a “significant oil discovery,” with more than 295 feet (90 meters) of high-quality oil-bearing sandstone reservoirs being found.
Asked if he believes that the most recent find could result in a fresh round of disputes between Guyana and Venezuela, Granger said while government is aware of that country’s claim to that area, “it was something that preceded the Exxon announcement.”
“Venezuela has claimed our territory since from the time of independence for 50 years and we are in discussions with the Secretary General of the United Nations so that this matter could be taken to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and we are looking for a juridical settlement to this controversy,” he said.
