Guyana Advances as Leading Investment Hub

With more than 200 business meetings, presentations on investment opportunities, a buzzing investment village, and the visiting delegates’ unforgettable experience of local tourism and hospitality, the Caribbean Investment Forum 2024 has strengthened Guyana’s image as a leading investment hub in the region. On July 10-12, over 400 delegates comprising investors and business leaders from more than 30 countries from practically every region of the globe assembled at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre to harness investment opportunities and foster sustainable and resilient economies in the region.

In Guyana, the event energized the local tourism and hospitality sector, with city hotels experiencing a boom in occupancy and catering services going into overdrive. This spark was transferred to the discussions, which focused extensively on investment opportunities in sustainable agriculture development, the green economy, and digitization of business. The tone of excitement and eagerness was set by President Dr. Irfaan Ali, who opened the forum by declaring that Guyana’s friendly business climate makes it an investor’s paradise.

Guyana is open for investments in the agriculture, energy, forestry, ICT, manufacturing, mining, services, and tourism sectors. President Ali in highlighting the reasons for investing in Guyana, stated, “Guyana is the world’s fastest-growing economy, it is the ideal location to access global markets, we are resource-rich, we offer generous fiscal incentives for investments, and we have available multisector investment opportunities.” To bolster his point, the President noted that Guyana upholds democracy, transparency, and accountability, and local sectors have been repositioned to global competitiveness with heavy investments in social development, food, climate, and energy securities.

The infrastructure landscape of Guyana is also rapidly changing, taking a modern look and presenting numerous investment opportunities. A new city, Silica City, the country’s first smart city, is being built, seven new hospitals are under construction, new housing schemes are being developed across the country, and with the Gas-to-Energy Project coming on stream, Guyana will be a provider of cheap and reliable electricity.

The focus on infrastructural development is equally matched with attention to environmental preservation, ramping up agriculture production, and promoting Guyana as a tourism hub to the world. Guyana is utilizing its forests to serve as the lungs of the world, leading efforts to slash the region’s food import bill by 25 percent by 2025, and several international branded hotels are under construction. To ensure that citizens are highly skilled to lead its bright future, more than

20,000 local students have been awarded scholarships to pursue higher education, in addition to thousands more benefiting from government-funded technical training programs.