A Monthly Feature Celebrating Guyana’s Progress

Walk down Main Street today, and you’ll see something remarkable happening. Georgetown, once known for its colonial charm mixed with urban challenges, is undergoing a transformation that would have seemed impossible just five years ago.

The Numbers Tell the Story

Since 2020, Georgetown has seen:

  • 40+ new businesses opening on Main Street alone
  • $500 million invested in waterfront development
  • 300% increase in tourism infrastructure
  • 12 new hotels under construction or recently opened

Beyond the Statistics

But the real story isn’t in the numbers—it’s in the people.

Rajiv Persaud, who returned from Toronto last year to open a tech startup, puts it simply: “I left because I didn’t see opportunity. I came back because now I see nothing but opportunity.”

His company, GuyanaTech Solutions, now employs 45 Guyanese developers, many of whom were considering emigration before finding high-paying tech jobs at home.

The Waterfront Renaissance

The Demerara River waterfront, once avoided after dark, now bustles with evening activity. New restaurants serve everything from traditional pepperpot to international fusion cuisine. Families stroll along newly lit promenades. Street vendors sell coconut water and plantain chips to office workers on lunch breaks.

“My grandmother remembers when this was the heart of Georgetown,” says Michelle Chen, owner of River’s Edge Café. “We’re not building something new—we’re reclaiming something we lost.”

Challenges Remain

Not everything is perfect. Traffic congestion has worsened with prosperity. Housing prices are rising faster than wages for some. The infrastructure upgrades can’t keep pace with demand.

But these are, as Mayor Patricia Williams notes, “the problems of a city that’s growing, not dying.”

The Diaspora Returns

Perhaps most telling: the flow is reversing. More Guyanese are returning home than leaving. The “brain drain” that plagued the nation for decades is becoming a “brain gain.”

At the University of Guyana, Professor David Singh sees it in his classrooms: “Students used to ask me how to get into foreign universities. Now they ask me how to build businesses here.”

Looking Forward

The transformation of Georgetown is just beginning. Plans are underway for:

  • A modern public transportation system
  • Expansion of the Cheddi Jagan International Airport
  • A new convention center to attract regional conferences
  • Smart city initiatives including free public WiFi
  • Green spaces and urban parks

What It Means

Georgetown’s transformation is more than physical infrastructure. It represents a psychological shift—from a nation that exported its talent to one that nurtures and retains it.

Walking through Bourda Market on a Saturday morning, you hear it in conversations. Pride. Hope. Excitement about tomorrow.

One vendor, selling mangoes and plantains, summed it up: “My children don’t have to leave anymore. That’s everything.”

The Guyanese Horizon

This monthly feature will chronicle Guyana’s journey—the successes, the challenges, the people building tomorrow. Because understanding where we’re going requires seeing where we are.

Georgetown is rising. And so is Guyana.

The Guyanese Horizon is a monthly feature celebrating progress, honoring heritage, and documenting the transformation of our nation.