Delegations coming from a number of countries to explore investments - President

In their bid to explore investment opportunities here, a number of delegations from across the world are expected to visit Guyana in the coming weeks to conduct “on ground” inspections.

“They are coming to do an evaluation, physical evaluation of what the opportunities are,” Ali announced during his remarks at a virtual press conference held yesterday.

Ali is in New York where he attended the 76th session of the United Nations General Assembly.

Over the past few days, he has met and engaged with leaders from around the world, “Who came together and want to have a better understanding of where the country is going, where the economy is going and what are the business opportunities,” Ali told the media.

He explained that the evaluation will not only focus on the opportunities in the Oil and Gas sector but also other areas. “We have spoken to many of these investors about the opportunities in food security, agriculture, the services industry, manufacturing and of course the diversification of our energy sector,” Ali said.

Among the countries that delegations are expected from is Kenya. The delegation from Kenya will be headed by the country’s President.

While he did not list the other countries, Ali said about six or seven other delegations will be visiting.

“We also had very good meetings with various representative of the Middle East from Prime Ministers to Princes and so on and they too are working on delegations to come to Guyana and for us to have also a further engagement with them in the wide cross-section of economic opportunity,” the President added.

Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo is also expected to lead a delegation to Ghana soon. “That is an important engagement in Ghana to deal with the Oil and Gas sector and also to see how we can have technology transfer and integration between the two countries,” Ali said.

According to Ali, from all the meetings he has participated in, it is clear that Guyana is an area of high focus. “Our country is playing on a different stage. Our country is getting a different level of attention. Our country is being focused on and as leaders we have to ensure that we give clear clarity as to where the country is going,” he said.

To do this, Ali said calls for strong leadership since questions were raised about the country’s democracy in light of the fivemonth-long election fiasco.

“This is a key question from all those we engaged with. They want to know that the country is built on a foundation of democracy, stability, the rule of law. From all the engagement, it is clear that persons were following the five months and of course it raises questions in terms of the sustainability of a country when you had democracy threatened the way it was threatened,” Ali stated.

“So we had to repair a lot of damage also. We had to answer a lot of questions in relation to that but we are very happy that we had the opportunity to do so and we were able to present Guyana as a strong emerging market not only for oil and gas but for the various opportunities that are coming ahead,” he added.