The lead article on the Guyana Office for Investment (Go Invest) in the recent issue of Stabroek Business indicates that the new director Geoffrey da Silva, former Minister of Trade, has brought some life and direction to it. Long criticised for being an ineffective agency and not fulfilling its objective of promoting new investment Mr da Silva, who had gained the reputation of being one of the more active and effective ministers in the previous government, described steps that had been taken under his stewardship to make it more investor friendly and to facilitate businessmen.
Other articles in the same issue indicate that long leases are available at the Eccles Industrial Estate. Prescribed tax incentives are available for various investments as well as for projects based in the communities of Linden, Ituni and Kwakwani. Mr da Silva contends that the absence of an Investment Code is not hindering investment. He is almost certainly wrong in this. Such a code can be freely circulated to businesses and Chambers of Commerce overseas and is a convenient way of indicating to potential investors the terms on which they can do business here. The draft code remains stuck in the National Assembly.
Mr da Silva says that during his tenure 3300 direct jobs have been created on a total investment of US $ll0 m, the majority of which was by local companies. He referred to investments in the fisheries and forestry sectors and said there are at present forty-one local projects going ahead as a result of contacts with investors. The public as a whole is not aware of this and it would be in the interest of Mr da Silva and the government, through the Guyana Information Agency, to give more publicity to these projects than has been the case so far. The general impression has been that there has been very little investment, partly of course as a result of the ongoing political instability which Mr da Silva says he does not attempt to hide from investors.
Certainly, the scope for investment even in the production of ordinary consumer items must be considerable given the huge amounts of imported goods one still sees in the shops and supermarkets here and throughout the region, though there is an increasing apprehension on the part of manufacturers as to the long term prospects of survival, given the move towards free trade and the harsh competition they will have to face from major manufacturing companies overseas without the benefit of a protective tariff. Mr da Silva is operating on a modest annual budget of $45m for an operation of this kind.
Six investment officers are employed who deal with investors and help promote exports. He said there has been an effort to attend trade fairs and trade delegations have been received from a few countries. Though the achievements are far from spectacular given the desperate need for more jobs for school leavers and the unemployed it is good to know that this agency which once seemed moribund has achieved a new lease on life. But a lot more needs to be done and Mr da Silva should be given the resources to help him to redouble the agency’s efforts.