With the arrival of the oil and gas sector, Guyana is attracting interest from French companies and is now on the radar for the building of stronger relations.
This was noted by Nicolás Bouillane de Lacoste, non-resident Ambassador of France to Guyana, who was part of the coordination of a visit by a business delegation from French Guiana and France.
The delegation comprised some 14 different businesses looking to invest in Guyana’s economy. The business representatives over the last few days engaged key stakeholders including the Government and private companies on ways in which they can partner and bring their businesses into the Guyana market.
The Ambassador had announced the decision of the French Government to advance its diplomatic presence in Guyana through the establishment of a French Office in Georgetown by September 2023. He spoke earlier this year in a meeting with the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Hugh Todd.
While the office is not an Embassy it will have a full-fledged diplomatic representative to aid in the furtherance of mutually beneficial cooperation and bilateral relations between Guyana and France.
Fast forward to this engagement, French businesses are looking to invest in a range of areas from renewable energy to real estate among others.
At the event hosted by the visiting French delegation at the Guyana Marriott Hotel, Ambassador de Lacoste, when asked what spurred the visit, explained that this country is on the radar for business.
“Unfortunately the habits, you know. Traditionally you look towards this part of the world and before you arrived to changes it takes time and we are happy that Guyana is now appearing on our radar. We were a partner for business at other parts of the world but slowly, but steadily we are understanding that this is the part to do business. We, as of European countries, as of France particular, we are late; that is true but …some of the leading companies they are here. For instance you have a French company called Teleperformance, it’s a company that has a huge amount of employees probably the foreign company with has the highest number of employees. We have other companies, which are not known as French but are operating in Guyana”, the ambassador said.
de Lacoste said that he sees this as first step in building relations with Guyana.
“It will take time, you know. You first come, you meet you see people you start to understand. It takes time to build a relationship of trust to build economic ties but this is the first step and it’s a very, very important step and many, many people in this delegation were for the first time in Guyana”, he said.
The Ambassador said that as of the now, the relationship looks like it will expand since some of the barriers have been looked at, including even the one of stereotype.
“They are amazed because you see, the image they have of Guyana is completely different; in terms of like, if I could (say it) correctly. People of Guyana have a very peculiar image of Guyana and we have the stereotype we have been living with. We have to break the stereotypes. We have to visit each other and learn to know each other and we see this is falling down very quickly because you are familiar with the place. And, you know, I think there has been some setback for some time and Guyana was a place of immigration, like in French Guiana…”, de Lacoste added.
He said that there will be regular meetings to build on the relationship that has started.
“For many of them after this first step we will have regular meetings and that’s how we build a relationship”, he said.
Guyana and France established diplomatic relations on June 22, 1967 and this also covers its overseas department, French Guiana.
