GUYANA - On Friday, President Irfaan Ali commissioned Caricom’s first World Trade Centre WTC in Guyana, an entity he hopes would leverage the country as a magnet for trade and investment.
Located on High Street, Kingston, Georgetown, the World Trade Centre Georgetown was made possible through negotiations between the Demerara Distillers Limited DDL and the World Trade Centre Association WTCA, headquartered in New York. Delivering the feature address on Friday, President Irfaan Ali noted that the ceremony is not just about the commissioning of a building, but another symbolic investment that tells the story of the country and the significant growth and development that is being created. It’s also very important that we have building like the World Trade Centre to signify Guyana’s positioning. We are trying to position our country in the globe in a way that is going to be transformative for us and transformative for this region. We are very confident about the outlook of our country, but we are even more confident about the role we can play, and we will play in the global economy,” he said. The President said that with the type of investment opportunities that are coming Guyana’s way, the World Trade Centre and similar organisations with a network are critical for Guyana’s current phase of transformation. It’s no longer a phase of development, it’s a phase of transformation and it also requires transformative thinking. Our mindset must also be geared towards what is needed and what is required in this transformative environment,” he related. According to the President, one of the issues for the country’s small and medium sized enterprises, is creating an enabling environment to help them with their competitiveness, to meet the standards that international market would accept, to help them to get cheap capital and to help them to get access to technology that will make their businesses viable. (Kaieteur News)