US$5 million investment is first joint venture by Guyanese, United Arab Emirates manufacturers

Last Updated on Tuesday, 19 October 2021, 15:02 by Denis Chabrol

A US$5 million investment deal for the construction of an environmentally friendly slab factory in Guyana to serve the needs of the oil and gas sector was inked Tuesday, marking the first ever manufacturing joint venture and investment deal between companies in Guyana and the United Arab Emirates (UAE),  a Guyanese merchant bank announced.

Smart City Clearing Company Ltd; the Guyanese merchant bank, said it facilitated the accord between the Guyana-based engineering, procurement and construction firm, Global Infrastructure Solutions Guyana Inc and the Emirati-owned Unidome Global DWC.

The bank said under the memorandum of understanding, the two companies  have agreed to partner to develop a 20,000 square foot manufacturing facility to bring Unidome’s state of the art voided slab manufacturing technology to Guyana.

“The $5M USD investment will allow for the ability to create Unidome’s state-of-the-art biaxial voided slab technology which will be used to help build and develop key infrastructure needed for the development of Guyana’s burgeoning oil and gas industry,” Smart City Clearing said in a statement.

With this new company coming on stream, officials said there would be a reduced demand for cement. The merchant bank explained that the Unidome technology helps to limit one of the largest contributors to C02 emissions in the construction industry – concrete, by creating biaxial voided slabs that are lighter and allow for greater distance between a building’s structural columns. “One container of Unidome eliminates 30 truckloads of concrete,” the bank added.

Smarty City Clearing Company said Sherwin Sandy from Guyanese based Sandcorp Development Inc. who was in attendance and would be helping develop the Guyanese based manufacturing facility as part of a large industrial park that he is developing in conjunction with Acarai Properties Guyana Inc. “Historically Guyana couldn’t afford to attract light manufacturing. I am excited to be working with both Global Infrastructure Solutions Guyana and Unidome Global DWC to be one of the founding tenant of a new industrial park that we are in the process of conceptualizing and developing to help support Guyana’s growth,” Mr. Sandy said.

The signing of the memorandum of understanding was facilitated Tuesday at Unidome Global ’s MENA headquarters by Steven Jasmin and Major Gavin Singh who are the Managing Directors of Smart City Clearing Company and its Guyana Affiliate Sc3 Guyana Inc.

Signing were Chief Executive Officer of Unidome Global DWC LLC, Khalid Al-Qaqa and  Chief Executive Officer of Global Infrastructure Guyana Inc; Troy Phillips.

The ceremony was attended by representatives of the governments of Guyana and the United Arab Emirates and was held to coincide with Dubai Expo 202o.

The Guyana delegation was led by  Chief Executive Officer of the Guyana Office for Investment (Go-Invest),  Dr. Peter Ramsaroop; Chairman of the Private Sector Commission, Mr. Paul Cheong, and Senior Vice President of the Georgetown Chamber of Industry and Commerce(GCCI), Captain Gerald “Gerry” Gouveia Jr.

Appearing on behalf of the Dubai South Logistics District was Chief Executive Officer Mohsen Ahmad and the Head of Dubai South Business Development

Smart City Clearing explained that the slab technology would be a critical building block as Guyana pursues an aggressive plan of building a deep-water harbor, a 100-mile Deepwater natural gas pipeline as well as numerous shorebases and industrial zones throughout one of the world’s newest oil producing nations.

“With eight shorebases coming on line and over 5,000 hotel rooms in development, technologies like Unidome and partnerships with local Guyanese companies like Global Infrastructure Solutions Guyana Inc. are critical to Guyana’s long term success,” said Dr. Ramsaroop.

Global Infrastructure Solutions’ Chief Executive Officer Troy Phillips added that, “Global Infrastructure Solutions is honored to take part in this historic event as we work together to bring best practices and unique technologies to Guyana”.

The investment comes at a time when the Guyana government’s stated goal is to help offset and develop a “Green Guyana” and in conjunction with  President Ifraan Ali’s commitment to supporting investments centered around the UN SDG’s.  “Unidome’s cost effective and environmentally friendly technology both will help reduce the cost of infrastructure development while simultaneously helping to foster Guyana’s net zero emission goals,”  Mr. Singh said.

Because of global supply chain issues and to help lessen Unidome’s carbon footprint, the choice was made to establish operations in Guyana to service not only Guyana but the Caribbean region.  “Unidome is quickly growing it’s global footprint and as it finalizes the development of it’s fourh plant in Egypt, we saw the opportunity to establish a facility in the world’s fastest growing economy – Guyana, South America,” says Unidome Global DWC’s CEO Khalid Al-Qaqa in a statement during today’s signing Ceremony.

As leader of one of the fastest growing trade zones in the world, CEO Mohsen Ahmad expressed his gratitude and excitement for this partnership as the Free Zone continues its journey to be the center of commerce and trade both regionally and globally.  He stated that, “sharing the lessons and best practices we have developed here in Dubai South with partners Globally will help us build the connections and relationships with countries like Guyana to develop new trade routes for industry and commerce as the world emerges from a post covid-19 environment”