Guyana, India offers enormous trade, investment opportunities – Foreign Secretary

– Inaugural Guyana-India Virtual Trade and Investment Summit 2024 held

Guyana and India’s economic performance globally presents a convenient environment for the expansion of trade and investment prospects by the private sector and governments of the two nations.

This was emphasised by Foreign Secretary Robert Persaud when he addressed the opening of the inaugural Guyana-India Virtual Trade and Investment Summit 2024 hosted by the High Commission of Guyana in India on Wednesday.

Intentional financial firms have described Guyana as the fastest-growing economy in the world due to the accelerated development of its petroleum resources.

India is also known to be the world’s fastest-growing major economy. 

“There is [a]range of existing and emerging new opportunities for Indian businesses as they are tremendous opportunities too, for our businesses. Also, we want this to be an opportunity to forge closer partnerships whereby our private sector, [and] our businesses can work with Indian businesses, bringing their experiences, bring their expertise, bringing their capital and also us,” the foreign secretary underscored.

He added, “It would be a bit negligent if both our private sectors and government as facilitators do not explore and do not, as it were, seek out what those opportunities are.”

Persaud commended the Guyana High Commission in India for facilitating the important interaction, while assuring the government’s support in maximising these types of engagements to bring about the realisation of the countries’ fullest potential.

The foreign secretary also signalled the country’s intent to forge stronger bilateral ties at the private sector level – as a key cornerstone of its foreign policy. He added that Guyana will continue to nurture strong, bilateral cooperation with the Government of India for mutual interest and benefit.

“We will continue to look at other areas of enhancing our bilateral cooperation but certainly, the effort that we’re placing here today … will allow us to build upon work already done,” Persaud stressed.

Also shedding light on Guyana’s investment climate was the Chief Executive Officer of the Guyana Office for Investment, Dr Peter Ramsaroop, who reiterated the importance of the Guyana/India private sector relationship.

He alluded to several attractive fiscal incentive policies established to drive heavy investments to accelerate the country’s development trajectory.

India’s High Commissioner to Guyana, Dr Amit Telang said that India can support the Government of Guyana’s drive to increase its local human resource capacity to complement the country’s exponential transformation.

Meanwhile, Vice Chairman of the Private Sector Commission (PSC) Rafeek Khan, President of the Guyana Manufacturing and Services Association (GMSA), Ramsay Ali, Executive of the India-Guyana Chamber of Commerce (IGCC) Shaleeza Shaw also highlighted sectors to potential investors during the summit.

Mining, oil and gas, energy, agriculture, and manufacturing sectors were tinted as ‘low-hanging fruits’ for doing business in Guyana by the private sector representatives.

Senior Director & Head – of LAC and Oceana, Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) Imran Khan had identified oil and gas, Information and Technology (IT), Agriculture and Pharmaceuticals and Healthcare as key sectors of interest for the Indian private sector.

The summit was conceptualised to forge key partnerships and collaboration between Guyanese businesses and their Indian counterparts, so that the vast investment prospects can be explored, translating to enhanced relations between the two nations.