Making a pitch to the Canadian diaspora to come home and invest, President Irfaan Ali said that not only did Guyana need its human resources more than ever, but investment opportunities were sure and did not need approval for him to flourish.
“Rediscover your country; rediscover its future and then make appropriate decisions. There is no doubt we are talking about an economy that will be a US$10 billion economy by 2030. We are talking GDP [Gross Domestic Product] per capita that will move to be about US$30k. We need people and we need people badly,” the President said during an address at a breakfast event organized by the International Muslim Organisation of Toronto, Canada.
During his three-day visit to Canada which concluded yesterday, Ali was bullish on Guyana’s economic prospects and trumpeted the many developmental projects that are ongoing and those that his government has planned for the future.
It is for this reason he urged the diaspora to return to their homeland and help with the transformation, while they themselves reap the benefits from their investments. “We have a massive transformational programme and if you come to Guyana and you don’t feel the energy and see the transformation, I would ask you to come back or you can get good eye-care in Guyana …or at Hakim Optical here [in Canada] and get your eyes tested. It is all over. Development is massive; it pushes you. It energizes you,” the President said.
He told them that there are “almost nine new hotels under construction, 12 hospitals and four of which are level five [ratings], a specialty hospital, three private hospitals…,” Ali emphasized.
Making reference to changes in Region Three, he pointed to the Vreed en Hoop Shorebase project. “The sand that has to be supplied for the quantum is all the sand utilized for the last 10 years for the whole country. And guess what? It has to be supplied within five months. That is the scale and scope of what I am talking about. This is no play thing. For example, and to give you an idea, let’s say we are talking about a system that was designed to implement $10 every year is now asked to implement $10 million every year. That is 10,000 percent more than it was designed for. It is not an easy task,” he reasoned.
From his observations, Ali pointed out that many persons from the diaspora believe that to begin their investments in Guyana they had to first have direct meetings with the President, which he said was totally false.
“Sometimes members of the diaspora amaze me; they would come and only invest if they have a meeting with the President. Imagine if an investor comes here and says ‘I would only invest if I get a meeting with [Canadian Prime Minister] Justin [Trudeau]’. God bless your soul,” he remarked.
He pointed out that the mindset of meeting top officials before action, “is a consequence of small society. The challenges are diverse and different today from three years ago; five years ago; ten years ago.”
Ali also spoke about energy and food security in the region and globally, and he contended that Guyana will be an “integral” part of both.
Specifically, on Caricom’s food security and its plans to reduce imports by 25% by 2025, he said that Guyana’s plan was to make itself a regional food hub as “…that will serve the region and position Guyana to become that hub”.
He promised members of the diaspora that they would be seeing more of his government’s officials, evidence that they are not forgotten and the government was serious about people returning home and will assist them.
“During the course of your summer, the Vice President and the Prime Minister will be visiting at different events, so you know that we care about you,” he said, while noting that visits were on hold during the two year Covid-19 pandemic period because of lockdowns and restrictions.
“We are also working on some specific models in which the diaspora can deploy resources and that can benefit from them and integrate them into what we are doing back home… We don’t want an inflexible rigid society… We want One Guyana,” he added.
