Senior Finance Minister hosts follow-up agriculture investment meeting
–as implementation of President Ali’s strategy of diversifying sectors and boosting the non-oil economy continues
Government continues to aggressively push and implement strategies for Guyana’s non-oil sector to be expanded and today was no different as Senior Minister in the Office of the President with Responsibility for Finance Dr. Ashni Singh hosted another follow-up meeting with Chandra Pratap Singh, Business Development Director and Emil Moukarzel, Chief Operating Officer of Elite Agro LLC of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Accompanying the Finance Minister at the meeting were Ministers of Agriculture, Zulfikar Mustapha and Tourism Industry and Commerce, Oneidge Walrond along with Chairman of the Private Sector Commission, Paul Cheong and other private sector representatives including David Fernandes, Head of a consortium dealing with the expansion of corn and soya-bean production in Guyana and Sachin Singh who heads another private sector consortium dealing with the expansion of the seafood sector.
The meeting was a follow-up to earlier meetings held between President Irfaan Ali and officials of Elite Agro LLC (one of the UAE’s leading agriculture companies having large scale integrated farming operations and currently engaged in growing, sourcing, importing and marketing of agricultural products) and forms part of the President’s implementation strategy for diversification of Guyana’s non-oil sector.
During the meeting Minister Singh explained to the officials of Elite Agro LLC that traditionally agriculture has been an extremely important anchor in Guyana’s economy and today will still be an important anchor in the non-oil economy. He also indicated that with Guyana looking to expand the agricultural sector currently, two big streams of opportunities are available to Elite Agro LLC either to be a direct investor or to facilitate trade in agricultural commodities to other export destinations.
“Guyana has vast expanses of very rich and fertile land for agriculture. We have been for a long time a large-scale producer for specific agricultural crops such as sugar and rice, but we are now exporting a number of other commodities which are ready for large-scale cultivation and other crops that are poised for rapid expansion as well. We also produce a wide selection of livestock and meat for consumption,” Dr. Singh pointed out.
Expanding further on the agricultural sector under his portfolio during his presentation to Elite Agro LLC, Minister Mustapha indicated that with the emergence of oil and gas, it is expected that the oil and gas sector will complement the non-oil sector and Government will invest in infrastructure to support the development and expansion of the agricultural sector.
Meanwhile, the private sector representatives provided extensive and detailed presentations to Elite Agro LLC on agriculture (including corn and soya bean) and seafood along with the available opportunities for investment in these areas.
Wrapping up the meeting, Minister Singh indicated that his Government alongside the private sector is aggressively pursuing investment as quickly as possible as this will aid in expansion of Guyana’s economy as well as facilitate job-creation.
“We are a very stable environment, both politically and economically. Guyana is now a place where we are having conversations with all of the big companies of the world (and not just in agriculture) and this is a signal of how attractive we are for investment,” the Finance Minister concluded.
Also present at today’s meeting were Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Tourism, Industry and Commerce, Sharon Roopchand, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Guyana Office for Investment (GO-Invest), Dr. Peter Ramsaroop and Aditya Persaud, Technical Officer in the Ministry of Agriculture.