Guyana to offer potential investors more ‘ready-to-invest’ projects in 2018 – GO-Invest CEO

Chief Executive Officer of the Guyana Office for Investment (GO-Invest), Owen Verway, on Monday said the agency would be offering potential investors more ready-to-invest projects in 2018, as opposed to just marketing ideas.
He was at the time speaking at the agency’s year-end press conference, where he outlined the challenges of, and accomplishments for, 2017, while providing a preview of 2018 plans.
“There is a need to have more pipeline-ready projects, not just ideas. We have been marketing the opportunities, and we have started the process of having the Minister (of Finance) meeting with the other ministries in trying to go through their capital project plans to see what is it we can turn around, and see what we can make into real investment opportunities — whether it is public /private or people private,” he said.
Verway indicated that GO-Invest is also in talks with the National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited (NICIL) to have some of that agency’s assets packaged into investment opportunities.
According to Verway, the agency has to place more emphasis on marketing, and there are mechanisms to ensure that this is addressed in the New Year.
“Marketing needs to be a more significant focus of the agency. We spend more than 50-60 per cent of time doing due diligence and processing of applications…a lot of proposals are half or less completed…we find ourselves handholding the clients in getting their proposals finished,” he noted, while outlining some of the challenges for 2017.
In addition, the CEO revealed that they are also in talks with the University of Guyana to establish a partnership-based approach in the development of a tool to understand the value chain.
The agency would also be establishing a service provider’s database to make services more readily available to potential investors.
The CEO reported that, in 2017, the agency has been able to process some 120 investment agreements, and has observed over 46 applications for over 99,000 acres of commercial land.
Collaborative efforts
Meanwhile, Board Chairman Patricia Bacchus said that the agency is looking for greater collaborative efforts with their partners, in order to ensure the effective processing of investment proposals.
“Although the agency was touted as being a one stop shop, it was never legally set up to be a one stop shop. It was only responsible for the element of investment promotion, which involved recommending investment agreements for potential investors, which would grant them waivers on duty and taxes relative to their investments, as well as recommend tax holidays. There was a need for a greater level collaboration between the agencies responsible for promoting investments. Those include the Guyana Revenue Authority, Guyana Lands and Surveys Commission, Ministry of Foreign Trade, Environmental Protection Agency, and a number of other agencies,” she said.
“We asked that our Board be constituted by senior representatives from these agencies, to ensure that investment is promoted faster, and with greater efficiency,” Bacchus added.
GO-Invest was set up as the investment promotion agency for Guyana, and its mandate included both foreign direct and local investment across all sectors, along with the promotion of export and trade.