Foreign investors urged to contract local truckers

May 30, 2025 News

Kaieteur News- President Irfaan Ali on Wednesday urged foreign investors who are operating in Guyana to utilise the services of local truckers, saying there is no need to expend their capital resources on trucking.

The Head-of-State made the statement during the inaugural ceremony of Drominc Asphalt Plant, the first Colombian industrial company to Guyana which opened its operation along the Linden/ Soesdyke Highway.

While speaking of a large-scale boom of the infrastructure industry taking place in Guyana and that there is a lot of business opportunities being created, the President noted to investors coming in and that the country has been building up its capacity to provide services.

Foreign investors urged to contract local truckers

President Irfaan Ali (Photo courtesy, DPI)

“But we want investors who are coming in to look at the capacity we’ve been able to build up here in Guyana and MACORP should help in this, because MACORP should be able to tell investors who are coming in that there is no need for you to expend capital resources on trucking, because the Guyanese investors, they’re buying trucks as part of their own self-development,” he explained.

He further told the foreign investors, that there are a lot of services that they will be able to outsource, “reducing your capital and operation costs, and at the same time supporting the trucking, logistics and transport industry that is being created locally.”

In recognizing these local services, the President said they want Guyana Office for Investment (GO-Invest) to be not only a facilitator for investment, but a constructive partner in investment.

“So that when these investments are coming in, we can direct you not only to the efficient delivery of your infrastructure, but we can help you to find local partners that bring synergy to your business and that is important, that is key,” he stated.

Meanwhile, speaking about utilizing the services of local truckers during his press conference, Vice President (VP) Bharrat Jagdeo on Thursday said he has given the directive that the movement of materials from stockpile areas relating to government contracts should only use local trucking services.

“I committed that all the government contracts … like in Linden, now we have a stockpile. There we are soon gonna award billions of dollars of road contracts in Linden that those moving from the stockpile…I talked to Edghill (Minister of Public Works), to the contractors that they only use local trucks,” he explained.

The VP said he made the commitment after recently engaging local truckers who are operating out of Linden that have raised their concerns.

A previous protest action staged by local truckers over an alleged foreign takeover of the trucking and businesses in Guyana.

Kaieteur News had reported last week, that truck drivers staged two days of protests in the mining town of Linden and at the Soesdyke Junction over an alleged foreign takeover of the trucking and businesses in Guyana and that locals are being unable to get ‘a bite’.

It was reported that drivers claimed that Chinese companies are taking bread out of their mouth and accused the government of allowing foreign nationals to put them out of work.

At the time, they had called on the government to intervene and that they must give priority to the locals.

Discover more from Kaieteur News

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.

Contract, first priority, Guyanese truckers, President Irfaan Ali, Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo

Latest News