The Guyana Office for Investment (GO-Invest) has claimed that the political climate in Guyana has had little effect on investments coming to Guyana.
This is according to the agency’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Owen Verwey, that the investment climate in Guyana remained the same.
“It has not [had an impact]. If you realised your recent political development was 21st December. So, that would have been too late to affect anything that we would have been doing,” he stated.
When pressed to state whether it has had an impact on businesses here, Verwey said it would be difficult to assess that, noting that GO-Invest has not had any negative feedback.
However, Business Minister Dominic Gaskin has admitted over the weekend that local investment was being affected by the political situation resulting from the no-confidence vote.
Gaskin said that the state of affairs is impacting local business investments, but claimed that foreign investors, especially those in the oil and gas sector, are not detoured.
According to the Minister, the business community allows itself to be impacted, but he thinks there is no cause for concern or for panic, because Guyana is a mature democracy by now and has proven it is capable of handling these situations without hindrance to the economy.
Although Gaskin assured that the ongoing political situation in Guyana would not affect foreign investors, diplomats of the American, British, Canadian and European (ABCE) countries recently met with Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) during which concerns were raised about the impact the current situation could have on potential investment opportunities.
In February, the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI) said it had conducted a study following the passage of the December 21, 2018 no-confidence motion and has found that the looming political uncertainty has caused some 64 per cent of businesses to register some sort of decline.
