President Irfaan Ali and his contingent continued in their quest yesterday to promote business opportunities and investment in Guyana while attending EXPO 2020 in Dubai with discussions of creating a logistics hub here for the UAE.
According to an Office of the President release yesterday, Ali visited Abu Dhabi Ports’ ultra-modern temperature-controlled vaccine storage warehouse facility which is also home to the Hope Consortium at the Khalifa Industrial Zone (KIZAD) and the Khalifa Port. Whilst there he stated that Guyana was desirous of building a “strong partnership” with Abu Dhabi Ports to create a new logistics hub for the United Arab Emirates (UAE) that will connect business opportunities in South America, Central America, the Caribbean, North America and West Africa.
The release added that the CEO of Abu Dhabi Ports and owner, operator, developer and regulator of Abu Dhabi’s maritime infrastructure and KIZAD, Mohamed Juma Al Shamisi, in response said that his company is very serious about investing in Guyana. “Thank you for that trust. We are serious about Guyana, and I promise you we passed the time of thinking, now we are in the implementation stage. So what you will see today is the capability of Abu Dhabi Ports.”
The president noted that Guyana’s contingent, which features a large delegation from the local private sector, is on “a very serious mission” in the UAE with the drive to have meaningful discussions and to make impactful decisions. “We want to be in strong partnerships with Abu Dhabi Ports, seriously connected to opportunities in Brazil in the oil and gas sector, and creating a new logistics hub for the UAE in Guyana.”
He made it clear that his government is willing to facilitate the project by creating incentives and by ensuring that investments made are feasible for all parties involved. Also emphasised was the Government of Guyana’s willingness to facilitate the project by creating incentives and by ensuring that investments made are feasible for all parties involved.
“We are ready to work with you on having that deepwater port ready for not only Guyana but for the region. And for the most important strategic positioning for the UAE in South America, the Caribbean – in Latin America. I think we could just think about it as an upscaled Panama [Canal] development”, Ali said.
The President was joined by Sheikh Ahmed Dalmook Al Maktoum of the UAE and representatives of the Guyanese private sector as well as Government Ministers including: Senior Minister within the Office of the President with responsibility for Finance, Dr Ashni Singh; Minister of Tour-ism, Industry and Com-merce, Oneidge Walrond and Minister of Culture, Youth and Sport, Charles Ramson Jr. Al Maktoum had visited Guyana last year with pledges of investment. None of these has materialized but during his visit he brokered a deal for the supply of Russian COVID-19 vaccines above the price it was being sold at by the Russian authorities.
The private sector contingent in Dubai was also busy as it held a “successful” meeting with the Dubai Chamber of Com-merce and Industry which resulted in an announcement by its President and CEO, Hamad Buamim, that the Chamber is ready to facilitate a Guyana Trade Office in Dubai. He explained that the function of the office would be to promote and expedite continuous investment and trade partnerships between the two nations. Buamim also emphasised his Chamber’s desire to continue building relationships with emerging countries like Guyana through private sector partnerships.
Both delegations discussed ways to connect businesses for trade and business opportunities between countries while increasing the presence of Dubai’s private sector in our region.
Prior to the meeting, President Irfaan Ali urged the private sector delegation at a breakfast meeting to take advantage of the opportunities available and form themselves into consortiums, the release added.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Finance in a statement said that Senior Finance Minister Singh and a group of Guyanese private sector representatives met earlier yesterday with Mubadala, the sovereign wealth investment company within the United Arab Emirates. The Mubadala delegation was led by Musabbeh Al Kaabi, Chief Executive Officer of UAE Investments. The meeting took place at Mubadala’s headquarters in Abu Dhabi.
During the meeting with Mubadala, the statement said that Singh and the Guyanese delegation highlighted a number of sectors that are poised for immediate growth and that are therefore ripe with investment opportunities. These include: the oil and gas sector which is poised to exceed one million barrels a day before the end of the decade; non-oil extractives such as gold, bauxite, manganese, and other minerals.
The statement said that the Mubadala team welcomed the information shared by Singh and the delegation on the Guya-nese economy and associated investment opportunities in Guyana, sought various clarifications which were addressed by the Guyanese team, and signaled interest in advancing discussions in a number of specific areas.
The statement said that Mubadala is a US$243 billion (UAE Dirhams 894 billion) business that spans six continents with interests across multiple sectors and asset classes.
