During 2017, the Guyana Office for Investment (Go-Invest) received and processed 120 Investment Agreements and Land applications and while these applications are expected to yield 1,956 jobs, Chief Executive Officer Owen Verwey has stressed that this is not an immediate result.
“(You have to take) into consideration the average projected life cycle to number of projected jobs will be created over a 36-month period,” he explained to Stabroek News last week.
The projects span nine sectors namely Agriculture, Light Manufacturing, Tourism, Services, Information and Communication Technology, Forestry and Energy. There were no proposals received in the Mining sector this year.
Verwey had announced at an End of Year press conference earlier last week that sectors such as agriculture, light manufacturing, forestry and tourism saw application numbers which fell short of what was expected.
“We were expecting a bit more of that. There is some wait-and-see attitude, also there is a lot of people who are [ready to] wait and see about oil and gas rather than going forward with their core businesses,” he had explained.
In the data provided it was noted that the Agriculture sector had the largest number of proposals processed; 40 with a proposed job creation of 911.
The second largest number of proposals were received in the services sector. This sector saw 30 proposals which intent to create a total of 416 jobs.
Verwey had stressed that this sector saw a larger than expected number of applications especially from those interested in providing services in Guyana’s burgeoning Oil and Gas Industry.
“Most of the companies are interested in service provision to the Oil and Gas Industry. They would come to us to register; to try to understand the market here, look for recommendations for lawyers who can incorporate their companies, accountants who they can work with, staff and recruitment agencies that they may want to work with,” he had explained.
The remaining number of proposal include 26 in the area of Light Manufacturing with a projected 323 created jobs, four in the Tourism sector with 121 projected new jobs, 10 in Forestry with 105 new employment opportunities, nine in the energy section for 80 potential jobs and one in the Information and Communication Techno-logy sector.
