“When it comes to doing business, Guyana is the place to be”
- NCB Capital Markets boss tells J’ca Stock Exchange forum
What is now globally acknowledged to be Guyana’s vast oil wealth and the potential that this holds as a global magnet for lucrative significant external investment in the country’s economy has become the subject of energetic discourses at local business fora as well as at regional and international gatherings where, for expanding businesses, investment opportunities is a high priority. At the recent opening ceremony of the 19th Annual Conference of the Jamaica Stock Exchange, Angus Young, Chief Executive Officer of NCB Capital Markets, one of the leading FOREX Brokers in the hemisphere, waxed warm about Guyana as an investment haven for ambitious and enterprising fortune seekers. “Guyana is the place to be,” the business executive reportedly told the gathering, asserting that the ‘oil hotspot’ currently enjoys a near unchallenged reputation as “probably the fastest growing country in the western hemisphere” having grown by an estimated 39 percent in 2023. A similar level of growth is anticipated this year.
Guyana’s petro-driven transformation, Young reportedly told his audience, places the country “at the forefront of global conversations and its people are set to encounter unprecedented changes for the good, the bad and the in-between.” Young reportedly cited what he said were opportunities to assist in Guyana’s domestic capital market by leveraging the collective expertise and experience of other markets in the region such as Jamaica. “This will be crucial to ensuring that every Guyanese citizen can participate in the world’s fastest-growing economy,” he asserted. While he noted that “traditional banking” has an important role to play in the unfolding opportunities offered by the dramatic ‘breakout’ of the country’s growth potential, Young reportedly told his audience that this “is not sufficient to harness the full spectrum of opportunities across various industries especially in the rapidly evolving landscape of Guyana.” Meanwhile, the Trinidadian financier and businessman reportedly told his audience that Guyana’s model continues to attract significant global interest, asserting that the energy sector will play a role in the creation of vast opportunities for the country.
Recently, the country attracted both local and international attention after Finance Minister, Dr. Ashni Singh, had unveiled the country’s first ever trillion dollar budget, with vast sums being invested in sectors that include agriculture, education and aspects of structural reconstruction. Moreover, in the light of warnings emanating from the United
Nations about the fragility of the food security bona fides of the Caribbean, Guyana has moved to the centre of a regional food security undertaking that seeks to ensure that the countries in the region that are most vulnerable to food insecurity benefit from an initiative that includes the establishment of a major food security terminal designed to ensure capacity to respond to food security emergencies. “In the region, traditional banks stipulate asset bank lenders relying on collateral as physical assets. However, the energy sector always requires specialized equipment, posing a challenge for traditional banking. This is where the capital markets can play a pivotal role. The swift and expeditious development in Guyana presents tremendous opportunities for its people,” Young reportedly told the forum.
These days Guyana has grown accustomed to an unceasing movement of ‘business traffic’ from various parts of the world, the visitors including both conventional investment seekers as well as ‘highflying’ oil sector business magnates as investors from the hemisphere and further afield seek to take advantage of the investment opportunities that are opening up in the country across its sectors. Once a country that bore (and still bears to a considerable extent) the distinct gouges of
poverty and underdevelopment, there is beginning to emerge a distinct transformative footprint which, inevitably, has been attended by the socio-political strains that comes with rising popular expectations. It is this imponderable that is likely to impact most profoundly on the country’s future.