Finance Minister Dr Ashni Singh has pitched Guyana as a lucrative destination for British investment, citing billions of pounds in expanding trade and a £3.5 billion UK export-financing ceiling. However, his appeal for greater British involvement raises an important question: how much of the investment and commercial activity will translate into tangible opportunities for Guyanese businesses and workers?
Speaking at a business forum in Georgetown on October 30, held during the state visit of King Charles III, Singh urged British companies to pursue partnerships with Guyanese firms and nationals.
“Guyana is open for business, and we want to see more British companies doing business in Guyana,” he declared.
Singh reported that trade between Guyana and the United Kingdom totalled approximately £6 billion over the past five years, increasing from about £350 million in 2021 to £1.7 billion in 2025. He said Guyana had become the United Kingdom’s largest trading partner in the Commonwealth Caribbean, accounting for almost half of its trade with the region.
The minister presented the figures as evidence of the country’s growing economic importance, but expanding trade alone does not establish how much wealth is retained locally, how many domestic businesses benefit or whether Guyanese companies are securing a meaningful share of major contracts.
A central feature of Singh’s pitch was the growing financing capacity of UK Export Finance (UKEF). He said its country ceiling for Guyana had increased several times in five years, rising from £750 million in 2021 to £2.1 billion in 2024, £3 billion in October 2025 and £3.5 billion currently.
The financing is available to government and private-sector importers through direct lending or guarantees supporting commercial borrowing.
Singh also highlighted UKEF’s willingness to finance up to 100 per cent of a project’s value, subject to a minimum British content requirement of 20 per cent. While this creates opportunities for British exporters, it also raises questions about the extent to which Guyanese suppliers, contractors and service providers will participate in projects financed through these arrangements.
He further disclosed that Guyana’s Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) country risk classification had recently improved from Category 5 to Category 4, its second upgrade in four years. According to Singh, the change reduces risk premiums on officially supported export credit, potentially making British goods and services more competitive for Guyanese buyers.
Among the projects receiving UK-backed support is the construction of a new arrivals terminal at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport, financed through a €61.43 million loan from Santander Bank with a UKEF export credit guarantee. The Guyana Fire Service’s equipment upgrade is another project benefiting from British financing.
Singh also pointed to the 121-kilometre Linden-to-Mabura Hill highway, supported by the UK Caribbean Infrastructure Fund, as the first phase of a wider transport corridor. He said the planned expansion towards the Berbice coastline, including a deep-water port and industrial complex linked to Guyana’s second gas pipeline, would create further opportunities for British companies.
The minister identified oil and gas, mining, infrastructure, agriculture, aviation, tourism and services as sectors open to British investment.
However, the government’s investment drive must be judged by more than the number of foreign companies attracted or the value of financing made available. Transparency in the award of contracts, effective local-content enforcement, access to procurement opportunities and the development of domestic technical capacity will determine whether Guyanese businesses benefit meaningfully.
Singh said UKEF would be an important part of the country’s development journey and called for British companies to work alongside Guyanese businesses and nationals.
That partnership must amount to more than an invitation to participate. Guyanese companies need a fair opportunity to compete, secure contracts, build capacity and retain a meaningful share of the economic value generated by the country’s expanding investment programme.
The challenge for the government is to ensure that Guyana’s growing relationship with Britain produces broad-based domestic gains, rather than allowing the headline figures on trade and financing to become the principal measure of success.
