Less Talk. More Business – that’s what global investors, and regional business leaders, and innovators hope to extract from the Caribbean Investment Forum (CIF) 2024 when it is held from July 10 – 12, 2024 here in Guyana. Now in its third year, CIF is an annual forum created by the Barbados-based Caribbean Export Development Agency (Carib Export) that draws global investors to the region, and presents them with bankable investment opportunities from across the region. The overarching objective of CIF 2024 as stated at the launch event is to help ‘accumulate’ meaningful investment openings for regional businesses in areas that include Technology & Innovation, Sustainable Agriculture, and the transition to a Green Economy.
Executive Director of Caribbean Export, Deodat Maharaj, who addressed the launch, referred to considerations that underscored the strategic significance of the Caribbean as a geographic space that offers incentives to would-be investors. Head of the European Union’s Delegation to Guyana, Suriname and Caribbean, Joan Nadal Sastre, said the EU fully supports the forum and its mission. He noted that the EU’s 2022 Global Gateway Strategy was helping to bridge the Caribbean’s investment gap by using EU public financing to “leverage private capital and investment for projects that deliver on key public policy objectives” adding that “the European Union wants to do more business with the Caribbean. We want more EU companies to see the Caribbean as an investment opportunity. We want to be a key business partner for you and we have a lot to put on the table.”
Given the existing regional and international focus on Guyana as an envisaged investment haven, the CIF 2024 event will provide facilities that will allow for engagements between potential investors and local business leaders. Attendees will participate in plenary sessions, gain insight into investment opportunities through exposure to an ‘Investment Village and Expo’ and will accommodate booths from both established companies and start-ups from Guyana and the wider Caribbean.
The Caribbean Investment Forum is designed to create an environment specifically designed to unlock potential investment opportunities within the Caribbean across several sectors. It seeks to do so by drawing enhanced extra-regional visibility of the region as an investment destination; provide incentives that will encourage investment into what are deemed to be priority sectors, bring together critical groups in the international investment community in order to allow for the creation of agreements on priority areas deemed to be critical to the fast-tracking of the Caribbean’s socio-economic transition.
