Come next year, the Guyana Office for Investment (Go-Invest) will aggressively pursue trade and investment opportunities for local businesses. This was revealed today by Business Minister, Dominic Gaskin during the first round of the 2019 budget debates.
Gaskin, who was the second speaker to take the floor earlier today, said that the Business Ministry has budgeted $18.5M so that Go-Invest can participate in trade shows and facilitate the promotion of local export-ready products and investment opportunities to international buyers and investors at such events. The Business Minister said that he has budgeted some $6.5M for facilitating inward and outward missions aimed at exploring market and investment opportunities.
In 2019 also, Gaskin said that Go-Invest will provide training for 100 exporters to prepare them for international trading. In this regard, he noted that exporters are expected to learn things like costing, pricing, tradeshow readiness, B2B strategies, cluster, and Joint Venture development. He said that the sum of $620, 000 is allocated for this in his 2019 budget.
Further to this, he said that Go-Invest will develop and print an export manual for distribution as well as an online placement in order to help local businesses overcome export challenges. He said that $350,000 is allocated for this in his Ministry’s 2019 budget.
Additionally, the Ministry’s website will be updated and made more user-friendly.
In this regard, Gaskin revealed that an updated version of Guyana’s Investment Guide will also be available online. He said that $3.3M is allocated for this in 2019.
The Business Minister reminded that his agency continues to be an important port of call for foreign investors seeking information on various aspects of doing business in Guyana. He noted that the work of his Ministry is expected to benefit immensely from the national export and import strategies as well the institutional strengthening to be carried out under the National Quality Infrastructure project implemented through the Guyana National Bureau of Standards.
