The Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI) yesterday conferred the Public Service Award of Excellence to the Guyana Office for Investment (GO-Invest) for effectively facilitating the work of the business community by exhibiting the highest standard of service.
GCCI President Deodat Indar, who described GO-Invest as more “outward looking,” presented the award to GO-Invest Chief Executive Officer Owen Verwey yesterday afternoon.
Indar indicated that Verwey could not be presented with the award at the Chamber’s annual Gala and Awards Presentation Dinner as he was out of the country at the time.
“…On that very night, the GCCI recognised GO-Invest as a public institution that had an exceptional record in 2018 and the awards committee of the Chambers of Commerce decided to recognise GO-Invest for contribution and performance as a public enterprise,” Indar said.
He explained that they found that the organisation has been “more outward looking” and its presence at all of the incoming trade missions was always secured. “Mr. Verwey normally makes some very informative presentations on all of the agreements Guyana signs with the various countries and what are the benefits so that people can access. In addition to that, we do work together in terms of incoming businesses and members of the Chamber forming partnerships… When we were in Cuba, to sign our MoU there, a team from GO-Invest was there because we fielded a team from Guyana to Cuba and what we found is that many of these engagements yielded fruit,” Indar further explained.
Verwey also gave brief remarks in which he recognised the Chamber and thanked it for the recognition of the work GO-Invest has been doing. He said the recognition should be given to the members of the GO-Invest Board, who are the policy directors and have given invaluable guidance.
He also noted that the members of the GO-Invest team itself, despite being very young, also deserve the praise. He added that while some mentoring is needed, GO-Invest is working on improving that area so that it will be better equipped to service the business community and generally execute their mandate and objectives for investment and trade promotion and facilitation.
Verwey said GO-Invest will continue on the same path and will also continue to conduct outreaches to the business community inside and outside of Georgetown. He also noted that they were able to attend all of the expositions that were held last year as well as individual events such as the Lethem Town Week and Linden Town Day. “We will continue to do that in 2020 but we are very appreciative of this award and recognition of the work we have been doing to promote the Guyanese market,” he added.
Verwey was questioned about GO-Invest’s performance for last year and he noted that a press engagement would be held before the end of the month to address related questions.
