HGP Nightly News – President Irfaan Ali says a special investment vehicle will soon be launched to give Guyanese living overseas a way to invest in projects at home, including planned fertiliser and gas bottling plants.
He announced the proposal on Thursday evening at a diaspora gathering in Queens Village, New York, where hundreds attended a Presidential Meet and Greet at Jericho Palace Banquet Hall. Ali urged those who had left Guyana to remain connected to the country and take part in its economic expansion.
“Guyana is not the same as you knew it,” he told the gathering, describing the country as entering a second phase of transformation.
The President outlined plans for a deep-water port, expanded power generation, data centres, hotels, hospitals and airport facilities. He said Guyana must use those investments to build an economy that produces and exports more than oil, including food, gas and energy.
Ali also said the government is targeting 40,000 new homes over the next four years and intends to expand digital public services and introduce a national payment system accessible to citizens at home and abroad.
He pointed to free tertiary education, scholarships and teacher training as ways to prepare Guyanese for new jobs. On healthcare, he cited specialised cardiac surgery for children and plans for an oncology centre and a women and maternal hospital.
The President made a series of claims about development over the past five years, including the creation of 160,000 jobs, construction of more than 5,000 kilometres of roads and expansion of school facilities. Those figures were presented by Ali during the event.
Details of how the proposed diaspora investment vehicle would operate, when it would launch and what returns it might offer were not provided.
“Loving your country is not seasonal,” Ali told the gathering as he appealed to overseas Guyanese to participate in the projects he outlined.
