With two successful business delegations visiting in 2022 and 2023, Jamaica’s Minister of Industry, Investment and Commerce Aubyn Hill says that his country is now preparing a 75-member private sector group to visit here next month.
“We already had two success stories with two large groups. We are preparing a 75-member delegation to come on the 15th of May [2024]…,” Hill told the Stabroek News in Jamaica last Friday.
Following a meeting at the Liguanea Club in Kingston, Jamaica, Friday morning, where he met with two businessmen from the delegation, Hill said that the success stories coming out of the last two visits here were the reason a third was planned.
“It will be bigger and it will be better… You know Guyana is the place to be right now, and given our past, great bilateral relationship, this only adds to that…,” he said.
Harry Campbell of the Yassuh Company said that his company was “seeking partnerships with governments in developing countries to build digital infrastructure on which public and private entities can operate with never before possible efficiency”. He said that a key component of his visit here would be addressing digital infrastructure.
The company, according to Campbell, was founded by Andrew Walker who formerly worked with US tech company, Google.
Campbell said was eagerly looking forward to his visit in Guyana and networking with similar companies.
Also coming to Guyana is Weldon Maddan but he wants to keep what he brings to offer for a later date.
In 2022, Hill had told Stabroek News that he believes that Jamaica can assist Guyana with ensuring that its food exports to the US gain accreditation for entry.
While oil and gas was on the agenda of a summit organised by the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the focus of the then 38-member delegation of Jamaican business people and investors was on areas of finance, agriculture, tourism and food exports, as Hill underscored the benefits of diversification.
“What you do is play to your strength… We leave Americans to play in the NFL and baseball,” Hill had said, as he listed strengths his country can bring to Guyana, such as training and giving advice for the tourism sector and Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) running, along with agricultural investment.
Hill said that Jamaica does not have immediate interest in upstream or downstream oil investments such as refining, but that it can assist Guyana to develop holistically, from the revenue this country earns from oil proceeds.
Pointing specifically to agriculture and Caricom’s target to reduce food imports by 25 per cent by 2025, Hill said that supply chain lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia’s war in Ukraine should be that the region has to be self-sufficient.
Big land
“It means that we have to work together. It means that Guyana that has land, Jamaica that has big land and other countries in the Caribbean will work to make sure we’re reducing it [imports] because we cannot continue [as is]. Ukraine has taught us that you cannot be dependent; have your food dependency on countries that you’re not even close to. So we, with Guyana with Guyana’s land, with the financing we have from Jamaica; with financing that you’re going to have from the sales of your natural products and the products that you would produce from oil; we have to make sure we grow [food],” he said.
And with exporting food products here being a major setback, Hill pointed out that a Jamaican accreditation agency, which operates in line with United States Food and Drug Administration standards, is willing to offer its services to Guyana to align this country to export to the US.
Out of last year’s 63-member delegation, Jamaican businesswoman Kareema Muncey who had told this newspaper that she was returning to Guyana with plans to partner with locals to expand her well known Home Choice Enterprises (HCE) brand, gave an update.
From the United Kingdom where she is currently visiting, she told the Stabroek News via phone that her visit here was successful and she was able to partner with a distributor for her products.
The same elation was expressed by Jamaican cybersecurity analyst Mario Sparks who the Stabroek News had interviewed. He had revealed plans to invest in a technology company here to train locals in the field in which he also plans to hire them.
“It was absolutely successful and we were able to meet with a number of private sector companies. We were able to land a contact with GTT which saw us having three resources handled in Guyana and using Guyanese,” he explained.
He said that he would advise Jamaican businesses to not be afraid to come and scout as it opens a myriad of opportunities for networking and meeting business persons from other sectors.
“The opportunity by the government of Jamaica for private sector businesses is really great and will, for sure be really successful… the resources there cannot be explained in one go,” he said.
Sparks said that he has been able to partner with a local and they have a business registered here in Guyana currently.
And Jamaican financial analyst, Rezworth Burchenson who was also interviewed last year says that he continues to look at investment opportunities here. He still believes that this country is “ripe” for a blooming stock exchange. In addition, Burchenson says that other investors in Jamaica would seek him out for advice on investment opportunities here.
