The United Arab Emirates Sheikh Ahmed Dalmook Juma Al Maktoum’s delegation that visited here in November of last year to seal a deal for Sputnik vaccines had returned later last year to look at agriculture investments but have not been heard from since, according to Minister of Agriculture Zulfikar Mustapha.
“They came back and we did a presentation and they visited GuySuCo and so on. We are waiting to hear back from them on what are their interests,” Mustapha told the Stabroek News when asked for an update on promised investments announced by government.
He said that he was still upbeat about possible investment opportunities.
Al Maktoum and a delegation from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) came to Guyana, on a three-day visit last November in a blaze of publicity, ostensibly to invest in various sectors here including agriculture.
It was only after concerns were raised in the National Assembly in June about the purchase of the Sputnik V vaccines from a firm belonging to him that the country was aware that vaccines negotiations had taken place.
Government had said that in the initial meeting with President Ali, the UAE team had met with members of the cabinet including: Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Hugh Todd; Minister of Natural Resources, Vickram Bharrat; Minister of Housing and Water and Minister within the ministry, Collin Croal and Susan Rodrigues; Minister of Agriculture, Zulfikar Mustapha; Minister of Public Works, Juan Edghill; and other government officials.
Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo had told this newspaper that the meeting with the team had been “extremely successful and the two sides discussed areas of possible cooperation.”
Mustapha told the Guyana Chronicle in late January of this year that a second private investment team had returned to Guyana in December of last year.
“I had a meeting with a group from Dubai [the private investors], and I submitted information on rice, poultry and other areas within the sector,” he was quoted as saying.
“I had a chat with them after their visit to the estates, and they seemed very interested… Remember, they are technical people and not policymakers, so whatever they observe, they have to take back to the policymakers. But they were impressed with the sugar industry in Guyana, in terms of investing and so on,” Minister Mustapha had said last December, following the visit of the second Dubai team.
Al Maktoum is the founder of the diversified conglomerate, Africa, Middle East Resource Investment (AMERI Group).
According to the UAE’s Administration Office’s website Sheikh Ahmed Bin Dalmook Juma Al Maktoum’s office “has a portfolio of privately held group companies that focus mainly on Infrastructure Development, Energy Projects, LNG Terminal Development, Commodity & Oil Trading, Water Desalination, Water Recirculation as well as Education and Agricultural Project.”
“We currently own the largest emergency power plant installed in West Africa. The Private Office is undergoing development of over c. 2000 MW of Power Plants across many countries in Africa, Asia and other jurisdiction in the developing regions. We also deliver integrated and unbundled solutions in supplying LNG. With the help of our partnerships, we carry out the business of the complete supply chain of LNG and supplying natural gas,” it added.
