Guyana has extremely a high corporate tax rate of 40 percent for most corporations and 45 percent for telecommunications companies. Due to the lack of a U.S.-Guyana tax treaty, subsidiaries of U.S. companies operating in Guyana are required to pay a 20% withholding tax on dividend, interest and royalty payments to their U.S. parent companies. This places U.S companies at a disadvantage when compared to companies from countries that have a bilateral tax treaty with Guyana, such as Canada, the UK and the UAE, and have much lower percentages withheld. Some U.S. companies have reported difficulty and delays in obtaining refunds of withholding tax payments even after demonstrating full local tax compliance to the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA).

Guyana has high energy costs (approximately $0.28 to $0.40 subsidized cost per kilowatt hour) and an unreliable electrical grid with as many as 123 blackouts per year. Much of the country has poor road infrastructure that has not ever been paved and much of the paved portions are in disrepair. Much of the country is prone to flooding, particularly along the coastline, which sits below sea level. Ongoing infrastructure projects are expected to alleviate these challenges with new roads and a reliable supply of gas-powered, low-cost electricity that is anticipated to reduce the end user cost for electricity by half.

Government public procurement tenders have complicated submission criteria and opaque selection processes. Government procurement awards are not always legally binding, and the government sometimes seeks to negotiate additional concessions and more favorable contract terms even after procurement tender awards are announced. U.S. firms are encouraged to keep records of all transactions throughout the bidding process as evidence of compliance with submission standards.

Guyana’s Local Content Act was signed into law in December 2021 and came into effect in April 2022. The law broadly defines local content as the supply of goods or services by Guyanese nationals or Guyanese companies. The LCA mandates that 40 service lines, and products related to the oil and gas industry must be procured from Guyanese owned and operated companies. The targets range from near total local sourcing (90 to 100 percent) for services like ground transportation of personnel, local accounting and legal services, and pest control services to lower levels (between 5 to 25 percent) for more technical items like dredging services, engineering and machining, borehole testing, environmental services and studies, and aviation support services.

The LCA also requires companies to seek approval from the Local Content Secretariat for any sole source procurements worth $500 or more. The LCA significantly increased the ownership criteria for a company operating in or servicing the oil sector. For a company in the energy sector to qualify for concessions under the LCA, Guyanese nationals must have at least 51 percent of the voting rights, hold at least 75 percent of executive and senior management positions within the company, and hold at least 90 percent non-managerial staff positions. The additional reporting requirements in the LCA reportedly slow companies’ operations and increase operating costs.

In November 2025, the Government of Guyana called for public comments on plans to broaden the scope of the Local Content Act from the current 40 sectors to as many as 30 additional sectors. There is broad domestic support for broadening the scope of local content restrictions because many local companies would benefit. However, expanding the scope of local content requirements could act as a market entry barrier and potentially undermine free market competition, foreign investment and the provision of competitively priced goods and services by U.S. companies.

An undercapitalized financial market with a smaller pool of technical and manufacturing companies also translates to prospective local partners with limited funding and technical capacity. This is compounded by Guyana’s conservative banking system. Restrictions on unsecured lending (limited to 25% of net worth per individual and 40% per group) and stringent collateral requirements make it difficult for both local and foreign businesses to scale quickly without non-traditional or foreign capital injection.

A mismatch also exists between local content requirements for local labor market needs and available human capital, particularly in engineering, IT, logistics, and skilled trades. Companies may face recruitment and training costs for technical roles or a general cultural difference that can impact operational expectations.