Foreign investors showing interest in Region One
-manganese mine on the agenda again
Stabroek News, Thursday, November 8th 2007
A group of local and foreign individuals and company investors in the
forestry, aquaculture, mining, handicraft and tourism sectors recently
met with residents of Region One (Barima/Waini).
In this group were Essar Steel of India which intends to restart
manganese mining and processing in Port Kaituma by mid-2008, the
newly-reformed Jailing Forest Enterprises from China which has been
offered a mill site at the Four Mile quarry area, and Forest Enterprise
Limited which is interested in marketing and selling certified wood
products from Guyana to Europe and other areas, the Government
Information Agency (GINA) reported.
Also among the group were the National Aquaculture Association of
Guyana, the Forest Products Marketing Council of Guyana and handicraft
specialist Denzil Hollinsworth.
Meanwhile, farmers and other entrepreneurs of Mabaruma, Port Kaituma
and other parts of Region One have been urged to develop a formalised
approach to meet the demands of local and foreign investors who are in
search of markets for the region's products.
This charge follows a five-day visit by a team from the Guyana Office
for Investment (Go-Invest) Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Geoffrey Da
Silva and included representatives from the Ministry of Agriculture,
National Agricultural Research Institute (NARI) and the new Guyana
Marketing Corporation (GMC), GINA reported.
Prime Minister Samuel Hinds joined the team on November 2. Meetings
were held with stakeholders at Kumaka, Hosororo, Wauna, the Waini
River, Port Kaituma and Matthew's Ridge to continue the campaign of
encouraging local entrepreneurs from the region to "organise for the
market".
The Prime Minister in his remarks disclosed the administration's
intention of growing business through strengthened partnerships and
urged residents of the region to grab the opportunity, GINA stated.
Agriculture, he added, is important to the region since along with
providing export impetus it is key to the livelihoods of residents. He
also expressed enthusiasm over the re-establishment of mining which, he
noted, will provide gainful occupation for residents.
He endorsed the initiative by Go-Invest to promote economic capacity
building in Region One which is among the many areas across the country
earmarked by government for assistance in the economic diversification
drive.
Da Silva during the various meetings expressed optimism over Region One
regaining overwhelming opportunities for investment as it had been in
the early 1900s, supplying products to the local and Caribbean markets.
"Based on what this region has in terms of resources, this region could
rapidly take off, just as Berbice did," Da Silva said, according to
GINA.
"In the world today where a number of countries can make a decision to
hurt our economy badly, with the sugar protocol for instance, it is
very important that our economy is more diversified and we are starting
to see results in that respect," Da Silva said.
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