President Dr Mohamed Irfaan Ali has said Qatar’s success in turning its energy resources into a diversified, industrialised economy offers valuable lessons for Guyana.
Speaking during a special interview on Guyana-Qatar relations, the head of state pointed to Qatar’s use of natural gas to drive large-scale industrialisation and manufacturing. He also cited its investments in human capital, food security, education, tourism and sports.
The president noted that Qatar’s citizen population is small, yet it has secured a strong position in the world. That is a story, he said, with many synergies with Guyana’s own.
“Qatar really gives us that platform of partnership that understand the challenges of small population, but also converted those challenges into opportunities,” the president said during a special interview on Guyana-Qatar relations. “That is why I see Qatar as a model that is highly applicable.”
The Guyanese leader added that Guyana has even greater opportunities, given its wide base of natural resources. These include freshwater, arable land and a diversified mining sector spanning gold, bauxite, diamond, sand and manganese.
Building for the next 50 to 60 years
The president said that, based on the advice received so far, the best option for Guyana is to bring its gas onshore and develop a downstream industry. He noted that the global energy matrix will eventually shift, and Guyana must start building for that now.
He rejected the view that the country should monetise its gas. He described that approach as “simplistic” and “a narrow view”.
“We want to create long-term opportunity. We want to create opportunities for Guyana for the next 50, 60 years,” he said. “We do that by leveraging this resource, creating value from this resource, and the value is created by the downstream industry.”
President Ali outlined several industries the gas could power: an alumina plant to process local bauxite, a large-scale urea plant integrated with agriculture and distribution across the Caribbean, hyperscale data centres and agro-processing, manufacturing and bottling.
These industries, he said, would in turn grow the transport and logistics sector, strengthen port activity and deepen connectivity with northern Brazil.
“That is why I believe gas is an important part of building out the energy sector through our own ddemand, creating home-based demand, local demand, by having the sophisticated investors coming in here…and create added opportunities for diversification and our long-term economic prospects,” he explained.
Qatar signals strong investment interest
Reflecting on his second state visit to Qatar, the president said Doha is ready to partner with Guyana at the government-to-government level and alongside the private sector. The two nations will work in the coming weeks to develop a national project framework identifying priorities.
Among the projects discussed is a deepwater port, being developed with Bechtel and expected to cost billions of US dollars. Qatar, Saudi Arabia and US EXIM have all signalled interest in investing in the project.
According to the president, Qatar has also shown interest in several other areas: the energy sector, including distribution and transmission, infrastructure, agriculture, food security and hospitality, mining and additional offshore blocks, where it is already part of a partnership.
President Ali said Qatar has also provided some technical advice to Guyana, and its expertise in gas and downstream industries is critical to the partnership.
The president said the end goal of the transformation is a country where citizens can “aspire to be the best you can be without worrying about who is going to support those aspirations.”
He described that future as one with free education and healthcare, and world-class health and education systems. It would also include zero corporate tax on agriculture and food production, and safe, clean model communities across the country.