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Dubai Expo
Kaieteur News – Aladdin had his magic carpet ride. Guyana’s President Ali went to Dubai and took a whole lot of people along for a ride. And what a ride it was in the buffeting sands of a place carved out of the desert.
World Expo 2020 was the stage and President Ali took to the stage, like one of those old-time door-to-door salesman. He is getting better as a salesman, like a duck taking to water, all sales pitch in a torrent of gushing words that delight listening ears and captivate hearts. Come to Guyana and invest, we have everything to give, and we don’t demand much of those who come to take more than they give. Those are heavenly hymns, and there was no better, no more thrillingly competing, commercial than Guyana in Dubai at the Expo.
We question is, why President Ali thinks, he and his people, that Guyana needs to be sold to anyone. We have oil and in the billions of barrels, with more to come, and that alone sells itself. Look at all those American and European and Chinese companies and investors falling over themselves to rush to Guyana. Those that hurry here to latch on to as big a piece of this country’s rich, sweet action as they can get, compliments of weak, unwise political leaders, who have also earned a reputation for doing dirty business, and under a thick blanket of secrecy.
That is Guyana’s own Expo, now well known to the world, and President Ali didn’t have to travel all the way to Dubai to deliver that slick sales job. The President spoke of Guyana as a hub, just like the CJIA has been identified by Guyanese politicians as a hub. Each time, Guyanese leaders mention hub, Guyanese always end up getting shafted.
It is a record of how governments conduct the business of this country. He could have spared himself the trip and devoted himself to being truly transparent on how this nation’s oil wealth is being managed. He could have spared Guyanese taxpayers the heavy expense of his bloated entourage on a junket to sell what does not need to be sold, because it sells itself.
This country has opportunities all over: upstream, downstream, midstream and, sometimes, where there is no stream at all. Talk of technology and we need it. Speak of expertise and we are desperately short of it. Mention money, and banks line up to lend us since we have prime collateral: oil wealth, other natural resources wealth, agricultural wealth to be tapped, and infrastructure wealth to be built.
We need healthcare, daycare, and elder care. We need a brand-new capital city, ports and a real airport. Regarding the latter, we have not a white elephant, but a dinosaur that is already a museum piece. We have to get above the floodwaters and out of our shoes, which means projects and business waiting for the taking.
When putting a kind face on the visit, Guyana’s President could be regarded as an open-ended invitation: Come and do business with us, as we have red carpets ready to make the process smooth; there are these rich upsides to investing and having a footprint in Guyana. When looked at critically, it is as if the President is begging for people to come here and set up shop, as though we are some charity case looking for a handout. Nothing could be more remote from the facts that are of today’s Guyana.
Those who don’t know about Guyana need not bother to come, for they haven’t done their homework and will lose out. Those that have to be enticed to come here and invest are going to look upon it as making unwanted solicitations best left alone. We must not look this desperate, not when we are overflowing with wealth.
For sure, we are open to reciprocally beneficial partnerships, and if there are those from the investing world who have to trek to the glittering metropolis of Dubai to learn about Guyana’s prospects, then they may not be the best partners. The go-getters are already here: Trinidad, China, America, Europe, and elsewhere. A Guyana does not go to Dubai. Those going to Dubai come to us.
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