Interview with Ronald Theodore, CEO, Grenada Investment Development Corporation (GIDC)

01 Jul Interview with Ronald Theodore, CEO, Grenada Investment Development Corporation (GIDC)

Could you introduce Grenada Investment Development Corporation (GIDC) for the readers of USA Today?

GIDC was established in 1985 and we see ourselves as an economic development agency, not just an investment promotion agency. We have three strategic business units. Investment promotion is one of the strategic business units. That unit is responsible for promoting and facilitating investments on the island. We have priority sectors for investment: tourism, health and wellness, agribusiness, energy, ICT and creative industries. We are a hand-holding support to investors coming or locals who need that hand-holding support, to move from the idea stage of the project to the reality stage.

We also have the mandate for the administration of incentives. Once one is eligible for incentive support, we can evaluate that particular project and determine if they qualify for investment incentives and allow them to have the instruments to benefit from incentive support. That incentive support varies from customs duties exemptions, investment allowances, tax credits and so forth.

Then we have a facilities unit. GIDC has three business parks where we have persons operating in various buildings and various types of operations where we serve as landlords to several tenants. At the moment we have about 60 tenants operating in several types of businesses from call center-type operations in the BPO space, businesspersons, manufacturing persons and persons in warehousing and storage. In these three parks, persons operate and employment is generated. We have over 2000 persons working within these parks. With 60 tenants, the call center-type BPO-type operations provide a lot of employment. We have 3 call center-type operations within these parks. As a landlord, we ensure that tenants are satisfied and able to operate effectively.

Our business development unit works along with our small and medium-sized enterprises on the island to allow them to go from strength to strength. We make business plans for people, we do diagnostic studies, we help with the registration of companies or business registration, we do a lot of training. We have two dedicated training rooms where we train persons and this training is demand-driven. Once the local entrepreneurs can identify some of the training they need, either we facilitate, or we get a facilitator to provide training. We try to be very accommodating in the times when these trainings are undertaken to allow persons to do their trade and then in the afternoons they attend these training sessions.

We also play an active role where grants are concerned. We have a constant search that enables SME development and we try to assist our SMEs to benefit from these grant programs and we help them fill out the forms. Sometimes we apply for grants ourselves and then allow the benefits of those grants to go to the SMEs.

What is your strategic vision for GIDC and what are your priorities for the short and medium term?

We are looking at a more targeted approach for investment. We cannot continue to be reactive and wait for investors to come to our shores. We have to be targeted. It requires determining the sectors we want to receive investments and projects within those sectors, developing bankable projects, being clear on the investment that is required, the return on investments and being able to have those projects showcase to potential investors who are either in business or looking to invest in that particular area. We are developing profiles in different areas within these sectors that I mentioned. We are making sure we have those bankable projects identified and developed and then utilizing strategic approaches to get those projects to investors.

This is work that the Caribbean Association of Investment Promotion Agencies (CAIPA) is doing as well. The region is looking for investments and it has to be a targeted approach. I currently sit as the president of CAIPA. Our approach is that we see investors making decisions to invest. They will look at different regions – Asia, South America, etc. – to make an investment decision. We have to position the Caribbean as the region to invest in, as an investment destination. You have a value proposition by promoting as a region and then each of the islands has its own unique value proposition. When the investor focuses attention on the Caribbean, then Grenada or whatever island belonging to CAIPA strategically tries to get their projects to the investors. One may say we are competing with ourselves. But we’re not competing, we are coming together as a united front to promote the region as a block. We will continue to work more and more with CAIPA to promote the regional investment destination and our main approach. It’s not only promoting, but we share the cost of capacity building, we share the cost of research. We use economies of scale. We are 24 IPAs at the moment. GIDC will continue to be a strong member of that regional organization.

In other areas we are working on, the last incentive regime was passed by parliament in 2016. In 2024 some changes were made in the environment and other sectors that wanted to receive investments including climate change and sustainable investments. We want to make changes to the regime to promote investments in such strategic areas. A committee was formed and recommendations were made and the committee gave a presentation to the Ministry of Finance on this new incentive regime. We await their feedback as to the next steps. The intent is to have a revised incentive regime to clearly articulate the incentives that we want to promote and provide support for investments. We want a system that’s transparent and predictable and that complies with all the rules and regulations, like WTO.

When it comes to our industrial parks, we are about to embark on a new building of 40,000 square feet. We will start work by the end of July on that building to get additional space and that space will become available in the next 10 months. We’ll be able to have additional persons who are looking to do business on the island whether it be the BPO sector or manufacturing. We will look at creating additional buildings.

As relates to the business development unit, we continue to play an active role in fostering a spirit of entrepreneurship. We want to be able to have more programs for schools, different groups, females to get them involved in business, looking at strategies, having more outreach programs and so promoting different types of businesses persons can get involved, looking at linkages. We just had Six Senses Hotel become operational, Intercontinental is under construction at the moment. When you have these hotel chains that are coming, linkages can be created. We want to be able to have this outreach, look at the sectors and create job opportunities for students, like the marine sector. The yachting and marine sector is one sector that has not been affected by any of the shocks that we had from hurricanes or Covid or the financial crisis. We want to see these fine yachts that come to our shores. You want our people to work on these yachts bringing their skills set, the carpentry, the plumbing, the electronics and so forth. We don’t want to be outsourcing this to another island. You want to have the skillset that is there. It’s a matter of identifying the sectors that are critical to us and being in a position to have that knowledge base transferred to our students and other local persons for them to get into this space of looking at entrepreneurship and getting involved in the process and working with partners.

In the absence of any digital portal, which may come in the future once the financing is there, these are the mechanisms that we use at the moment. If there’s one investor who has some interest in oil and gas, based on what we’ve said at CAIPA maybe Trinidad or Guyana is the place for him to be. If we don’t have that particular project or his needs at the moment, why shouldn’t he be sent to one of the islands? It does not make sense to be trying to invest where you do not have a competitive advantage. If there is someone who has a competitive advantage, by all means, let them go there. That’s the spirit of collaboration. That is what it should be. Strongly working together works.

How are you working towards digitalization?

We know the shortfalls we have and that the need for digitalization is important. It comes at a cost. We are aware of that as well. When the presentation was done for the Ministry of Finance dealing with the incentives, the subject of a portal to be able to have the various projects in a processing framework that will cut the time down and allow the improvement in the business environment came up. There are particular recommendations that we need for developing a portal to help in a digitalized manner. We are trying to streamline the process of putting more technology in here to streamline the way we do things and have a faster turnaround time in dealing with investors.

Technology and digitalization are key to us. At CAIPA we utilize technology because our secretariat is virtual. At the end of the day, we come in by Zoom and we meet, we discuss. When it is a physical meeting to attend, we attend in person. Exim Bank is having an event in the Bahamas this week. There’s a panel on investments on Friday, which I have to be a part of to talk about investments in the region. I will see my other colleagues there from Barbados, Bahamas, Jamaica and so forth every day; some of them are on a panel as well. At times we meet virtually and at times we meet physically. So, we utilize technology as much as we can; all the agencies are connected via WhatsApp. You can find what the investor is asking, or if he received a particular benefit in a country you want to check to make sure this is correct, you send a message and they respond to you. That’s the shared information.

How does the GIDC engage with US investors and what opportunities exist for US businesses looking to invest in Grenada?

We have had some investments from the US but I still believe we can have more investments having a targeted approach. Within the BPO space, our two major call centers, which employ a large number of workers, are US-based companies. We have some hotels that are US-owned. We had some more manufacturing companies that were US-based but we lost them over the period, after the hurricanes.

Notwithstanding that, we continue to look at the US as a location. We work closely with the US Embassy. There are a lot of programs that the embassy has been providing especially to our business development unit. There’s a program that we have been working with the embassy for women to allow them to strengthen their businesses. They go through a program of hand-holding support with several mentors and they receive this training. Early on this year, we had a graduation ceremony for that class and a new class is about to start again soon. We get technical support from the embassy for certain programs, but we continue to promote Grenada as an investment location. Last year we had a mission to New York and we did some presentations in terms of investment opportunities and sectors for investments and support. We continue to do those initiatives but it has to be strategic and we must have something to be able to sell. They want to know what the projects are, what the investment is going to be and what their returns and support are going to be.

We utilize our ambassadors abroad a lot. We have some consulates based in the US. We want to continue to work with them to showcase Grenada as an opportunity. I strongly believe we need to see some more investments coming in from the US in different areas.

Can you highlight any specific projects or sectors where sustainability has been a key focus and the outcomes of these initiatives so far?

Regarding sustainability and especially looking at climate change, for the projects that we facilitate where incentives are concerned, the project must have approval from the physical planning unit and necessary environmental impact assessments must be completed and approved to benefit from incentive support. If it’s a hotel or a manufacturing plant we make sure one of the conditions is that you must have physical planning approval, based on the operation if an EIA (Environmental Impact Assessment) is required. Based on your location and activities, an EIA must be completed and approved to benefit from incentive support. Through that mechanism, we make sure that the projects we facilitate have some positive impact on the environment. Grenada is a small space and if you’re looking at a new development it has to be strategic as to where the investment takes place, the impact on the environment and how we mitigate against the negatives.

The other aspect is making sure that, other than sustainability, you have the technology transfer in terms of training and the linkages. For some of the projects that are coming in and investment agreements that we are assigning, we want to make sure that the project contributes to the economy in addition to staffing and training and looking that they can provide some scholarships as well. We tie these things into our investment agreements, making sure we can have a lot more linkages that are there to our populace and the economy as a whole.

There is a big Grenada diaspora in the US, especially in New York. What would you like to tell them?

Grenada has a lot of untapped opportunities; opportunities to do business back home. The diaspora sends remittances back home. We are thankful for that, but we also want to encourage them to look at opportunities to invest in the island. It is just not saying come and invest back home. But the question is investing in what? We want to identify opportunities, be clear on what the investment sum is and be clear on what returns on investment can be. It has to be more than a concept. It must be clearly defined and orchestrated to indicate this is the project, it’s this investment required, this is the returns. If we just continue what we’ve been doing all the time, we get the same result. You’ll have somewhat of an investment, but it will be just sporadic and few. For more of it, we have to have a strategic approach to doing this and doing this better.

Grenada is the ideal investment location. Grenada has a lot to offer. The Caribbean is not only a place of fun and sun; it’s a place to do business as well. Several people have invested in the Caribbean and they have done well. We need to sell these stories more. Grenada is a unique place for investments, not only from the point of view of its friendly people, its climate, safety and all these other features that we speak of. But they are also viable investment opportunities that can be tapped into. That is something that I want to share with persons reading the article, that we have a lot of untapped investment opportunities and the government is here to support investments within those areas.