U.S. Companies Heading To Guyana For Trade And Investment Mission

“This trade and investment mission is timed to coincide with GUYEXPO 2016 -Guyana’s national exhibition of products, services and trade and investment opportunities which opens on May 12, and to the opening of which mission members have been officially invited.

During the visit to Guyana there will be meetings with top private sector and government officials including Guyana’s Minister of Business the Honorable Dominic Gaskin and representatives of the Private Sector Commission. Specific sector meetings will be arranged based on specific interests,” says coordinator of the mission, Wesley Kirton.

The mission, put on by Outreach Aid to the Americas (OAA)’s CARICOM Outreach Program in conjunction with the newly established Guyanese American Chamber of Commerce, Inc. is intended to serve as a platform that facilitates networking with the key stakeholders and high-level decision-makers in Guyana; an opportunity to meet these decision-makers face-to-face and present business interests and proposals in a one on one environment; source Guyanese products for export and introduce new products directly to local target markets; and network and build relationships with potential customers for joint venture partnerships and investment.

One of the businesses to be represented on the May 10 to 14 trade and investment mission to Guyana is the top Italian company ASTALDI. Here Wesley Kirton (R), mission co-ordinator is pictured in discussion with ASTALDI’s General Manager for the Americas Dr. Mario Pieragostini, during the recent trade and investment mission to Belize, at Placencia, Belize.

A nation with under one million people, the area of Guyana is 83,000 square miles and is an attractive trade and investment destination providing opportunities for investment in gold and other mining, eco-tourism and related hospitality development, agriculture and agribusiness, clean energy, electronic assembly, low income housing, financial services and the supply of consumer goods, raw material and equipment.

Kirton says the mission has the full support of the Government of Guyana and the United States Embassy in Guyana which have both indicated their support in writing and are assisting in finalizing the program of meetings and activities. The Guyana Consulate in Florida, he said, is also assisting with arrangements.

“We have also written to the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Secretariat for a meeting since many of the companies want to get a better understanding of arrangements for both intra-regional trade and preferential access to international markets for products from Guyana and other CARICOM member states,” according to Kirton who is director of CARICOM Outreach Programs at OAA and a founding director of the Guyanese American Chamber of Commerce, Inc.

In February, the two organizations hosted an investment conference here which focused primarily on investment opportunities in the agriculture and agribusiness sector. CARICOM imports almost $5 billion (US) in food products annually and at that conference the Caribbean Agriculture Research and Development Institute (CARDI) identified a number of investment opportunities in this sector.