New Delhi: Dr Mohamed Irfaan Ali, President of Guyana today said that both India and Guyana are working to ensure that both nations are strategically positioned to cooperate in a deeper and stronger way and building a framework through which the private sector can be encouraged to invest. “India-Guyana are ready for investment, coordination of policies, plans and programs to simplify the process and make it easier for the private sector to invest and take part in the economic activities of the two countries,” he added.
Addressing the ‘Business Meeting in honour of the President of Guyana and the accompanying delegation’ organized by FICCI, jointly with other business Chambers (CII, ASSOCHAM), here on Friday, President Dr Ali stated that Guyana is blessed with immense natural resources. He cited that the world is going through a food, energy, climate and human resources crisis and India has the potential to utilize the geographic position of Guyana to provide solutions for mutual benefit.
Highlighting the potential sectors for investment, President Dr Ali said that Guyana has a large forest reserve which presents opportunities for large-scale down stream processing companies, reforestation programs and forest plantation plans. Apart from these, other areas for potential investment include the geo-chemicals sector, tourism and wellness tourism, manufacturing, agriculture, agro-processing, industrial development, infrastructure, IT.
“Our comparative advantage in agriculture is 2.15 times higher than any other South American countries including Brazil. We are also looking to increase our tourist inflows and working on a Comprehensive Tourism Plan to position Guyana as number 1 eco-tourism facility in the world. We are building the eco-system and infrastructure to support this,” he emphasized.
President Dr Ali also stated that the government is working on building an economy and an ecosystem that will stand on many legs and investments in education and healthcare. “The opportunities are enormous and investments in health, education and ICT sectors carry zero corporate tax. We are building an economy in the next 7-8 years that will be functional, sustainable, highly competitive and resilient,” he highlighted.
He further stated that technology, agriculture, oil and gas, renewable energy, environmental services, sports and entertainment are all areas in which Indian companies are already investing. “Now we are looking at attracting investments from Indian companies in sectors like financial services, manufacturing and agro-processing, production of vaccines. Time is now to invest as the cost of investment will not be the same as tomorrow. Indian companies should identify a local partner and network with them and get involved in the development of the Guyana economy,” added President Dr Ali.
Dr Rajkumar Ranjan Singh, Minister of State for External Affairs, Government of India, said that we attach high importance to our close and cordial relations with Guyana. This relationship is based on our longstanding engagements and strong people-to-people ties. “Our growing collaboration over the years has been marked by strengthening of bilateral relations on several fronts from political to economic, from development cooperation to culture. We look forward to further diversifying and strengthening our relations,” he added.
Dr Singh further stated that trade and economic cooperation is a vital component of our relation, and we see great complementarities in areas like energy, health and pharma, development partnerships and education. “Significant potential exists in further expanding our trade and economic cooperation in sectors like textiles, engineering, transport and automobiles, pharma, AYUSH, IT, chemicals and fertilizers, solar equipment, e-vehicles and agriculture,” he added.
Dr KJ Srinivasa, Indian High Commissioner in Guyana, said that trade and economic cooperation are vital components, and we see great complementarities in both of our economies. “It is time to retrospect, evaluate and have a relook at our economic ties. There are a lot of opportunities for both the nations to benefit from by increasing the investments in potential sectors,” he added.
Arvind Varchaswi, Co-Chair, FICCI Committee on AYUSH and Managing Director, Sri Sri Tattva said that we are looking forward to bringing Ayurveda in Guyana along with starting our production of AYUSH products. “We are also excited to invest in wellness tourism in Guyana and create capacity building and skills development in this particular sector,” he added.
S Kuppuswamy, Advisor, Shapoorji Pallonji Group and Senior Member, CII said that India and Indian industry is deeply committed to the development of strong linkages with the economies in the Latin American and Caribbean regions, wherein Guyana holds a special place. He added that the oil and gas sector along with IT, healthcare, knowledge intensive sectors and tourism are potential areas to enhance bilateral economic cooperation in the coming years.
Amit Aggarwal, Managing Director, Agromach Engineering, and Senior Member ASSOCHAM, said that with the modern partnership bound by strong historical ties between India and the Republic of Guyana, there is an immense potential to further increase cooperation between the two regions focusing on the regional corridors and investment alliances. /BI/
