Go-Invest facilitated $89.4B in investments for 2018

Mar 12, 2019 News

Go-Invest CEO, Owen Verwey

The Guyana Office for Investment (Go-Invest) facilitated $89.4B in investments for 2018. This was noted yesterday by the agency’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Owen Verwey, during a press conference at Duke Lodge.
The official noted that the $89.4 Billion accounts for all applications received while $52.2 Billion of that sum came from 56 executed investments, i.e. all signed investment agreements, across all platforms and sectors of Guyana’s economy.
According to year-end performance indicators based on investors’ figures, Verwey said that these investments are expected to create 1,644 jobs when the projects are fully operational. He said that these new jobs and associated training opportunities, will amplify Guyana’s human resource capabilities across key sectors including Agriculture, Light Manufacturing, Tourism, Services, Forestry and Energy.
In terms of the 56 executed investments, Verwey shared that 38 were local, I5 were Foreign Direct Investments (FDIs), and three were joint ventures. He said that the FDI agreements were predominantly within the Agriculture, Services and Manufacturing sectors, along with one in the Information and Communication Technology sector.
Verwey said, “Among FDI projects were the manufacturing of pre-cast concrete construction materials, coco peat from coconut shells, ventures in Transshipment and Aviation as well as Business Process Outsourcing Services (call centre) sector. Joint venture agreements executed were in the Energy, Tourism and Manufacturing sectors.”
According to investors’ projections, the Go-Invest CEO said that the value of FDI projects totaled $11.3B while joint ventures totaled $2.3 Billion. He said, too, that investors’ figures also indicated that the value of local investments in 2018 was $38.5 Billion, primarily in the Agriculture, Energy and Light Manufacturing sectors. He said that these projects are expected to create at least 1,056 jobs when fully operational.
Further to this, Verwey said that GO-Invest made substantial progress in promoting Guyana’s exports in international markets in2018. He said that the Agency matched 56 local businesses with overseas clients. Verwey said that these were involved in the supply of gold, diamonds, coffee, coconut- oil, heart-of-palm, pepper, fruit-pulp, dressed-lumber, noodles, beverages, and clay brick among other products.
To complement these activities, the Go-Invest CEO said that GO-Invest completed a robust programme of inward and outward missions that year to explore mutually beneficial investment opportunities and implement trade-related activities aimed at obtaining new markets and increasing exports.
Verwey said that this resulted in 36 Guyanese entrepreneurs in the Agro-processing, Mining and Tourism sectors attaining direct access to selected export markets offering the best sales opportunities for their products and services.
He said that the missions resulted in significant gains for both large and small enterprises with new markets secured for ventures of all sizes-from rice and other food and beverages to scented candles. Additionally, Verwey said that one mission resulted in the establishment of a joint venture agreement with a Brazilian company.
Verwey said that the Agency facilitated the improvement of local exporters’ marketing, networking, and monitoring tools and capabilities.

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