INVEST- 2018/19

is underperforming at this time cannot be overlooked. Nowhere is this clearer than in the publication’s introductory article which excitedly parades “projections for major government investments,” the “continuous and changing (urban) skyline,” “tourism development opportunities” and the impending opening of the multi–million-dollar MovieTowne and Entertainment Complex as indicators of what it suggests are the uplifting economic times that lie ahead.

Still, the sense of economic ‘feel good’ and optimism which INVEST Guyana seeks to create cannot disguise the contemporary challenges, not least, high unemployment, a sluggish commercial environment and a growing sense of national urgency about the need for the economy to turn around - and quickly. While, for example, articles appearing in the current issue of INVEST speak to themes like building indigenous communities, a more efficient energy infrastructure and housing, all of these are sectors facing what in some instances (energy being perhaps the best example) are formidable challenges for which there are no immediate-term solutions.

Challenges lie ahead too for the government’s targeted focus (articulated in separate articles in the current issue of INVEST Guyana) on restructuring the sugar industry, expanding the country’s international rice market and turning around a tourism industry that has so far decidedly failed to live up to