Go-Invest Tells Region 3 Entrepreneurs: Invest Before Outsiders Move In
GEORGETOWN, Guyana, May 2026 — Local entrepreneurs in Region 3 should move quickly to claim the investment openings on their own doorstep, or watch outsiders take them, the Guyana Office for Investment (Go-Invest) told a business audience in the region.
Speaking at the ECONOME "Untapped Waters" forum on opportunities in Region 3 (Essequibo Islands-West Demerara), Go-Invest Senior Director John Edghill argued that a housing build-out and a surge in vehicle imports are opening service and supply gaps that people from the region can fill, if they act now.
Why is Go-Invest pressing the point now?
Edghill's message was blunt: opportunity does not wait. "If you all don't make any investments in the region, other people come in," he said, warning that entrepreneurs from overseas are already circling. His case to locals was simple. You know these communities better than any outsider, so the advantage is yours to lose. He also pushed attendees to "demonstrate capacity," arguing that proven credibility, not ambition alone, wins contracts and customers.
Where are the housing opportunities?
The clearest driver, Edghill said, is housing. He pointed to roughly 15,000 house lots already developed across the region and about 20,000 more planned, concentrated in fast-growing, densely populated communities.
That scale of construction creates demand well beyond the houses themselves:
- building materials and hardware supply
- skilled trades and contracting
- retail and everyday services for new residents
- transport links between expanding settlements
The lesson for local businesses was to look past the obvious and chase the supply chain around the build-out.
What is the opportunity in vehicles and equipment?
Edghill's second example was vehicles. He told the forum that close to 100,000 vehicles were imported into Guyana in 2025, spread across cars, trucks and buses, much of it feeding the mining, construction and transportation sectors.
The opening, he argued, is not only in selling vehicles but in servicing them. He highlighted fleet-support niches such as GPS tracking for trucks and puncture-resistant tyre technology, the kind of after-sale service a country "under construction" needs and too often imports.
What should local entrepreneurs do next?
Edghill urged attendees to run the analysis themselves. Pick a major trend, map who it touches across the public sector, the private sector and the overlap between them, and find the unmet need. Housing and vehicles were his worked examples, not the limits.
His closing point tied back to identity. Region 3 residents, he suggested, should not hand their own backyard to investors who only discovered it yesterday.
Region 3, home to island communities such as Wakenaam and Leguan, is drawing fresh commercial attention as Guyana's oil-era growth pushes development beyond the capital. The forum's "Untapped Waters" framing caught the moment well. The openings are real, but the window for local first-movers is open now.
For readers tracking the region, the practical takeaway is to treat Region 3 not as a frontier to watch, but as a market to enter.