Less than three months three after visiting United Kingdom Deputy Trade Commissioner for Latin America and the Carib-bean (LAC) Spencer Mohoney had described Guyana as “one of the fastest growing countries on the planet” and had been upbeat about the prospects for enhanced trade relations between the Guyana and the United Kingdom, the first modest delegation of representatives of British private sector entities arrived here to undertake a first-hand probe of the real possibilities for the strengthening of trade and investment links between the two countries.
Earlier this week the multi-sectorial British delegation comprising representatives from several sectors including agriculture, manufacturing, renewable energy and Information and Communication Technology (ICT) met, first, with state officials, including the country’s President, Irfaan Ali and afterwards with a sampling of local business persons under the auspices of the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry. (GCCI).
The relatively brief interregnum between the November visit here by the senior British trade official and the arrival here of representatives from UK business houses would appear to suggest that the message being disseminated regarding Guyana’s now significantly enhanced profile as the Caribbean country offering, perhaps, the best business and investment prospects at this time, has been received by the UK private sector. Guyana’s now transformed circumstance has arisen out of the country’s ‘overnight’ transformation into one of the world’s fast-emerging oil -producing countries.
The visiting UK trade delegation comprising representatives of nine companies mark the first wave of what Mohoney had said during his November visit here, was likely to be a succession of representatives of British firms seeking to breathe new life into what, up until now, had been relatively low-key private sector-driven business relations between the two countries. While official reports of engagements between the visiting business functionaries and local public and private sector officials offer, at best, indicative clues to the prospects for significantly strengthened trade and commercial relations between the two countries, the visit’s significance real reposes in the stark contrast between with what, over the years, had been a decidedly low level of British private sector interest in Guyana and what, presently, appears to be a keenness to open a new chapter in British private sector investment here and in business to business relations.
Up until relatively recently, the prospects of a level of British private sector interest in ‘doing business’ in Guyana appeared relatively limited, compared to that which obtains in some other Carib-bean territories. During the two decades and more following Guyana’s independence trade relations had been modest, relying as they did, largely, on the efforts of Guyana’s diplomatic mission in the UK to help promote such prospects as existed for creating a sufficiently high level of British private sector interest in doing business in Guyana. In the absence of functionaries in the Guyana High Commission trained in private the promotion of private sector–related trade and investment pursuits, limited efforts to create a level of British private sector-driven business interest in Guyana met with virtually no success. What the seeming surfeit of British private sector interest in Guyana has now done is to compel government to move forward with long-promised undertakings to create room for a trade and investment service at the country’s UK High Commission.
What Guyana’s oil discovery has done is to ignite British trade, investment and technical cooperation interests in Guyana in areas that coincide with the country’s development agenda.
The visit here by the British private sector delegation just three months following the UK Deputy Trade Commissioner’s visit can well be attributed, first, to the success that has been realized in the global promotion of the country’s investment prospects in the wake of its successive significant oil finds as well as the positive outlook for doing business with Guyana taken back to the UK following the visit here by that country’s Deputy Trade Commissioner.
During his interview with the Stabroek Business Mahoney had said that the message that had derived from his visit to Guyana was clear. “Guyana is open for business. We want to make it easy for your companies to come and participate; we want it to be business to business and that is really good. In some parts of the world that is not the message from governments and there is, sometimes, inherent skepticism about what business can bring; but it seems that your government recognizes that business brings unique skills, expertise, and value that a country like Guyana needs to harness for its benefit. Guyana is open to this and I think that is really good.”
The relatively speedy assessment by the UK Deputy Trade Commissioner of the business and investment climate here would appear to have resonated with the business community in the UK.
Commenting on the engagement between the visiting British business delegation and the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI) a source close to the engagements told the Stabroek Business that the “early response” of the British private sector to the message arising out of Mr. Mahoney’s visit here “challenges the local Business Support Organizations (BSO’s) to ensure that they play their own part in ensuring that the promised business to business relationship works for the Guyana private sector.”
