His election to office having coincided with the materialization of the age-old promise that Guyana would one day experience the good fortune of becoming an ‘oil economy’, President Irfaan Ali has been basking in the glow of international media attention as the international business community continues to monitor what has now come to be regarded as a major haven for foreign investment.
Earlier this week, at a forum in Dubai hosted by the Caribbean Export Development Agency, the Guyanese President utilised what has now become a sizeable captive international audience to go beyond ‘batting for Guyana’, holding out the Caribbean as a fast-emerging investment haven, going forward.
“Once you have the capital, the foresight, access to technology, then the Caribbean region is a destination you should be looking at. It is a destination that offers you an opportunity to build a complex, multifaceted investment platform. And it’s a region that is looking at being self-sufficient in many areas,” Ali told the Caribbean Investment Forum (CIF2022).
President Ali’s aggressive lobby for enhanced international attention to the investment prospects which the Caribbean now offers would probably not have gone unnoticed in circumstances where the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) country which he leads has become the regional lightning rod for international investor attention as the prospects associated with the country’s oil & gas bonanza become increasingly apparent.
The Guyanese President’s presentation reportedly focussed attention on investment opportunities afforded in areas that include environmental services, agriculture, infrastructure development, tourism, and other areas of potential.
While acknowledging the modest size of the population of the Caribbean, President Ali asserted that its attraction reposes in the market services that it provides on account of a world-class and continually expanding tourism industry that serves as a natural attraction for would-be investors. Perhaps, critically, in the context of the ‘jitters’ in Europe arising out of Russia’s ongoing invasion of the Ukraine, President Ali also sought to ‘sell’ the Caribbean both as zone of peace and what he described as “an exclusive zone of tolerance and inclusiveness.” Beyond those virtues the President said that the strategic advantage of paying attention to the region also reposes in its location, offering direct access to South, Central and North America, circumstances that make the region an investor’s dream. And according to the Head-of-State, the Caribbean boasts “specific investment agreements and trade arrangements” that will provide a distinct advantage” in pursuit of business agreements.” Contextually, he pointed out that it was important that the region undertake “a complete rebuild of our logistics and transportation model,” as a matter of priority.
“We could create all the goods, but if you don’t have the means to move the goods and the services, then you have a serious problem,” the President told the Dubai forum.
