Some of the reportage emanating from the recently concluded 2024 International Building EXPO, staged at the Providence National Stadium, focused on the role played by the Guyana Office for Investment (GOINVEST) in the event. While the event had been tagged as hosted by the Ministry of Housing and Water, its overarching focus appeared to seek to paint, with a much broader brush, which reportedly focused on continued burnishing of the country’s petro-driven focus as offering potentially lucrative opportunities for investment.
As if to demonstrate that such investment opportunities are as much open to regional investors as to local ones, this year’s Building Expo event included high-profile participation therein by the Guyana Office for Investment (GOINVEST), a state-run agency whose two primary functions are listed as (1) Investment Promotion and Facilitation; and (2) Export Promotion. The high-profile presence of GOINVEST at this year’s Building EXPO appeared to suggest a conceptual broadening of the event to accommodate an agenda that has now expanded beyond the ‘building’ tag line that had been its original focus.
Indeed, the state media, this year, made a particular point about the “pivotal role” which the state-run agency was playing at this year’s International Building EXPO, the focal point of its participation therein being what it described as “an exclusive investment talk” with local and international investors during which the agency’s Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Peter Ramsaroop, reportedly filled participants in with “the main goal of evaluating the opportunity of local products for entry into international markets and exploring opportunities for foreign companies to establish production facilities and partnerships with local companies in Guyana.”
Dr. Ramsaroop’s assignment reportedly “aligns with the nation’s broader economic goals of boosting local industries and attracting international investments.” Here, part of the focus, according to the GO-INVEST CEO, is to probe opportunities for local products to “enter into international markets” and explore “opportunities for foreign companies to establish production facilities and partnerships with local companies in Guyana.” These pursuits, an official pronouncement stated, “aligns with the nation’s broader economic goals of boosting local industries and attracting international investments.
In outlining the “strategic advantages” associated with investing in Guyana, the GOINVEST Chief Executive Officer reportedly alluded to the country’s ongoing infrastructure developments, favourable investment climate, and sectors ripe for investment, such as energy, agriculture, and tourism.
