The President of Guyana, Dr Mohamed Irfaan Ali, shared his words on the expansion of the economic landscape in the nation and increasing opportunities. President also mentioned the cooperation with nations like the USA and China to advance in the sectors of finance, infrastructure, and energy. Irfaan Ali talked about it during a conversation with Matthew Swift, Co-founder, President, and CEO of Concordia.
President Irfaan Ali marked the cooperation with China and the USA as significant contributions to the economic growth of Guyana. While talking about China, he said that the Chinese influence due to limited competition dominated the region. However, now there are more diversified companies are coming into the play.
Irfaan Ali said, “Chinese financing is not as expansive today as it used to be. We have Chinese companies operating constructions for most of our major infrastructure. But, an American consortium is on the gas-to-shore project. The first phase of the road to Brazil is with a Brazilian company.”
Along with this, the President also talked about the new hospitals for improving the medical sector. Among the series of hospitals, two are overtaken by an Austrian firm, Vamed Engineering, for construction.
The company is working on projects for a hospital in New Amsterdam, Region Six, and a child and maternal hospital in Goedverwagting, East Coast Demerara. The government also invested three hundred million dollars in the development of Georgetown Seafront Resort and Convention Centre. The project is being executed by Assets Group Inc. from Qatar.
President Irfaan Ali highlighted in his words, “This is where a shift is taking place. If you look at our investment portfolio and finance availability portfolio now, we have more than two and a half billion pounds made available by the UKF, and also a sovereign loan approval from Canada.”
The nations of Guyana are also under a Memorandum of Understanding worth two billion US dollars with the United States EXIM Bank and the Saudi Fund for Development. President stated that investments by China helped the nation to get positioned as a prolific investment hub.
Irfaan Ali also stated, “India just approved a hundred million dollar special loan program for us. That’s such a diversified set of opportunities globally. And there are new opportunities that are coming up around the world. And if you check our portfolio, we have maybe the most diversified portfolio now of companies for the first time.”
He also took on the increasing competition, which is good in terms of efficiency, innovation, and investment for opportunities and economic growth. About the cooperation with the USA, Irfaan Ali also stated the commitment to cooperation in the advancement of the energy sector.
President said about the collaborations with multiple nations, “For the first time, we have major trade missions from the United Kingdom Embassy in Guyana, the High Commission in Guyana, the United States Embassy in Guyana, and Canada. Everyone is now pushing ahead for the opportunities.”
