As the prospects arising out of what is now Guyana’s largely oil-driven economy appear to grow even stronger, Caribbean business enterprises are ensuring that they are not left ‘out of the loop’ in terms of investment opportunities here.
Last week, a report from the twin-island Republic of Trinidad and Tobago disclosed that ANSA McAl, one of Trinidad and Tobago’s largest conglomerates, with business interests elsewhere in the Caribbean as well as in Europe and North America, will be further consolidating its business interests here through a US$6 million investment in the establishment of a “wharf and laydown yard” that will create one hundred (100) jobs here.
A Business Guardian report from Port of Spain quoting the company’s Chief Legal and External Affairs Officer, Frances Bain-Cumberbatch, says that the investment includes the setting up of infrastructure and land preparation of the site in Guyana.
The Business Guardian reports that ANSA’s Chief Executive Officer, Anthony Sagba, had recently made a disclosure regarding the company’s acquisition of 82 acres of land at Wales where the development of the wharf and the laydown yard to enable “port and marine commerce” will take place. Construction, the Business Guardian says, “is expected to begin around April next year,” and “projected to end by the fourth quarter of 2023.”
Bain-Cumberbatch is quoted as saying meanwhile that apart from the 100 jobs directly related to the project that will be created, “many other indirect ones” will also materialise.
The ANSA McAl official is reported in The Business Guardian as saying that “ten acres out of that 82 would be dedicated to a laydown yard where we would be storing, handling raw materials, off-loading materials as well as light assembly of products not only for the group but also for third party customers.” This, according to the ANSA official is intended to enable marine commerce between the east and west banks of the Demerara River. “It would basically facilitate the group’s growth but also commerce generally in Guyana making it more easy to transact business,” Bain-Cumberbatch is quoted by the Business Guardian as saying.
Further, the official noted that the nature of the company’s current investment is influenced by the vastness of Guyana’s landscape and the need to further create connectivity between regions in order to ensure that everyone has access to products.
Stabroek Business understands that ANSA McAl is also probing the possibility of manufacturing beverages here in Guyana under its Carib Brewery brand. The Guardian report also quotes Bain-Cumberbatch as saying that a feasibility study is currently underway to determine the viability of setting up a “green field brewery” in Guyana to both manufacture products here and to create opportunities for export markets in neighbouring Suriname and various Latin American markets.
