The internationally renowned information technology equipment and services provider, Lenovo, places a high priority in working with countries in the developing world to improve capacity even as it continue to explore market access possibilities in those countries.
The company’s Central America and the Caribbean Territory Executive William Gracia said that while the Caribbean, including Guyana, was seen by Lenovo as providing emerging opportunities for the creation of business relationships, the company was also interested in bringing new “development-oriented technology” to Guyana. “As a company we are concerned about putting technology in other people’s hands,” the Lenovo regional official told Stabroek Business.
The company, he said, has been the number one information technology entity globally for more than three years in a range of areas including personal computers, phones and data centres.
And consistent with President David Granger’s public advocacy of the goal of a green economy Gracia told Stabroek Business that the green orientation was also at the top of Lenovo’s list of operational priorities.
The visit here by the three-member Lenovo team comprising Gracia, company Product Manager Fausto Vargas and Lenovo Ambassador Garrett Dugger was facilitated by local information technology service and equipment provider Starr Computers, which, over the years, has been collaborating with international IT companies with a view to keeping the local sector abreast of key and critical developments.
On Wednesday, President of Starr Computers Mike Mohan told Stabroek Business he believed that a company with as formidable a reputation as Lenovo can contribute significantly to the growth and expansion of the local IT sector. The Starr Computers boss said that much of the work the company has undertaken in bringing foreign IT companies to Guyana has focused on adding to value to the human and physical IT infrastructure here.
Yesterday, this newspaper was present at a session during which more than 40 representatives of public and private sector agencies including the Ministries of the Presidency Public Security, Agriculture and Public Health, the Georgetown Hospital Corporation, the Guyana Defence Force, the National Insurance Scheme and the Guyana Lands and Surveys Commission were briefed by the visiting Lenovo team on technology-related developments in the sector. The Bank of Guyana, Republic Bank, the Guyana Bank for Trade and Industry, Banks DIH Ltd and Hand in Hand Trust along with private hospitals and call centres also attended the session.
Gracia told Stabroek Business that Lenovo’s engagements with Guyana were not occurring in isolation from the company’s understanding of the strategic importance of the country.
He said that the relevance of the collaborative work which the company was currently undertaking with Guyana, through Starr Computers was all the more important given that the company’s oil and gas reserves was likely to bring “huge growth” in the period ahead.
