Foreign direct investments raked in US $294M in 2012

Repsol-Officials-in-meeting-with-President-Donald-Ramotar-and-other-Government-officialsGeorgetown : A United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) report launched on Tuesday, states that Guyana earned US$294M through foreign direct investments (FDI) in 2012, representing a 19 % increase from the previous year’s US$247 M.

The Guyana Office for Investment (Go-Invest) reported that total FDI increased by 17.2%, from US$164.4M in 2009 to US$198.0 M in 2010. The agriculture, forestry and fishing sectors benefited from a 12.8% increase in FDI in 2010; the energy sector grew by 36.9%; mining and quarrying by 34.2%; manufacturing by 49.7%, and tourism and hospitality by 21.9%.

 “Guyana is economically on the rise and of great interest to investors both domestically and internationally… there is little that can match the power and scope of private investment when it comes to innovation, prosperity and security of developing nations such as Guyana,” Canadian High Commissioner David Devine said at the launch of the Invest Guyana magazine on May 9.

Jamaican billionaire, Michael Lee Chin, Portland Holdings Chairman and the National Commercial Bank (NCB) Managing Director Patrick Hylton recently came to Guyana in search of investment opportunities, wooed by the attractive business environment.

The Canadian Government is one of several diplomatic partners that have maximised on the opportunities to invest billions of dollars in job creation ventures such as in natural resources exploration.

The search for oil in a basin that was once vastly underexplored has seen reputable petroleum exploration companies CGX, of Canada, Repsol of Spain, and Exxon Mobil of the United Kingdom investing millions. As recent as May 14, Repsol signed another agreement with the Guyana Government to explore for oil in the Takutu block in the Berbice river.