Georgetown: Keith Burrowes, Chief Executive Officer, Guyana Office for Investment and Madaline Headley-Woodroffe, Business Development Officer, Barbados Industrial Development Corporation sign the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to establish Trade Missions between Guyana and Barbados
Keith Burrowes, Chief Executive Officer, Guyana Office for Investment and Madaline Headley-Woodroffe, Business Development Officer, Barbados Industrial Development Corporation sign the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to establish Trade Missions between Guyana and Barbados
Guyana and Barbados on Friday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) aimed at establishing Trade Missions between the two countries.
The MoU was signed by Keith Burrowes, Chief Executive Officer of the Guyana Office for Investment (GO-Invest) and Madaline Headley-Woodroffe, Business Development Officer of the Barbados Industrial Development Corporation (BIDC) at the GuyExpo Investment Forum held Friday at the Guyana International Conference Centre (GICC), the Government Information Agency (GINA) reported.
Burrowes noted that while the MoU should have been signed years ago, it means Guyana is going into an agreement with Barbados and examining having MoUs with other countries as well.
He pointed to the issue of due diligence, which is one area the entity would be examining carefully with overseas investors. Noting that credit ratings would be examined, while a turnover time of one week would be applied, the GO-Invest CEO explained the importance of working with other agencies in this regard.
Agreements will be made with the Guyana Revenue Authority and other agencies, Burrowes noted, stressing the fact that there are new economic requirements coming on board, for which Guyana was not ready, alluding to the Anti-Money Laundering Bill, the absence of which has begun to affect the business community.
Headley-Woodroffe observed that BIDC was similar to Go-Invest. She explained that while the main function of the MoU was to facilitate trade between the two countries “for a long time now, we have been trading with Guyana and many Caribbean islands”.
The Barbadian business official stated that while she was responsible for the Caribbean and Caricom trade agreements, BIDC provides incubation services for some investors for three years, until they graduate into full-fledged manufacturers.
“We provide subsidised factory space and also help them with funding through a special technical assistance programme. We try to encourage entrepreneurship from a young age by assisting the youths in our schools, training them in the ways of how to be entrepreneurs and giving them every opportunity to do so through competitions, etc.” she added.
Headley-Woodroffe pointed out that while the Barbadian team is attending GuyExpo mainly to share ideas and learn from Guyana in terms of agriculture, they welcomed help and assistance in areas needed by Barbados.
“We have eight companies being represented and they cross the borders of different areas; cabling, some in food, jewellery, printing, solar power agencies, just to give you a sample of some of the areas we are covering,” Headley-Woodroffe stated.
Observing that solar energy was developed in Barbados first, she expressed hurt that all of the solar panels are now being provided by China, Australia, Germany and other places.
“I believe that as a Region, we should be able to do more to promote the things which we have developed here and in so doing, we are also looking at having geographical indicators (GIs) for some of our products in Barbados especially in the rum industry, because rum was first made in Barbados,” the Bajan noted.
She explained that the team was trying to promote GIs in several areas such as black belly sheep farming and husbandry.
The MoU signed Friday is intended to “lead the way for trade between our countries. It will assist with trade missions, etc from one country to another.
It will help to broaden horizons into other areas like Brazil; that we can step from Barbados through the Caricom agreements to Guyana and hopefully into Brazil. We hope you can find avenues as well, back through Barbados to the northern areas of the Region,” she stated.
Headley-Woodroffe noted, however, that trading in the Region does have challenges.
She pointed to the challenges faced in exporting products from each country, noting that between Guyana and Barbados, shipping is mainly the problem. “It is difficult to ship items from Barbados directly to Guyana because of the trade route. I
believe that the authorities need to address this from both in Barbados and in Guyana and the Region generally, because if we are in a small area, I don’t believe that we should have to go Miami or so far afield and spend two weeks to get an item here,” the Barbadian trade officer explained.
She urged both countries to negotiate and discuss with relevant agencies in an effort to improve the situation and trade within the Region.
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