IN THE past few months, Guyana has seen some serious amounts of money being pumped into the local economy.
Last month alone, for example, saw the opening or launch of some major billion-dollar projects in Guyana. There was the official launch of Digicel on Valentine’s Day, February 14th. The cellular phone company’s initial investment in this country is worth US$60M, or roughly $12 billion in local currency. This massive investment was made despite the existence of an incumbent cell provider and a relatively small customer demographic compared to other potential markets.
Then there was the National Hardware Super Centre, a $1 billion venture made by businessman Edward Boyer.
Buddy’s International Hotel was also launched last week and represents a close to $2 billion investment in Guyana.
This is despite the fact that our international tourism industry is still very much in development. The launching of the City Mall earlier this year provides yet another example of massive investment in Guyana.
Most recently, Republic Bank turned the sod for their newest investment project in Guyana – a $1.3 billion state-of-the-art banking facility in the centre of the capital city.
In his feature address at the ceremony, Minister of Finance Dr. Ashni Kumar Singh, saw the initiative as an expression of confidence in the future of Guyana’s economy. The same could be said of other similar ventures.
However, true investor confidence is not measured only by massive inputs of capital like those made by the businesses noted above but in other smaller, yet collectively substantive, ways. These initiatives stand out but cannot realistically represent the larger picture of investor confidence in Guyana.
Dozens of small or medium seized ventures are in progress during any given week – restaurants, agricultural projects. Not only are new businesses sprouting up but already established ones are expanding and improving upon their services.
And if the Guyanese Diaspora hasn’t been coming back to invest in the numbers that we would have liked, there has been a slow but steady trickle – gone virtually unnoticed – of expats coming into Guyana on a temporary basis but opting to stay and pump their money into the local community.
While an ideal investor-friendly environment is still a work in progress in Guyana, these people are seeing something in Guyana that so many of us have accustomed ourselves to being blinded to.
A decade or so ago, anyone seeking to put any serious amount of money into Guyana would have been seen as a visionary or, more likely, an extreme venture capitalist.
Today the situation is different; investing money into Guyana seems to be a matter of simple practicality for an increasing number of people. Contrast this with incessant calls from some quarters that the national economy is in a virtual state of crisis – admittedly lessened of recent – and you have a clear case of reality finally emerging to disperse the mists of cultivated doubt.
The empty rhetoric of the negative may continue but far more people are putting their money where their mouths are.