The Guyana Office for Investment (GO-Invest) – one of the organising partners of the Guyana International Petroleum Business Summit and Exhibition (GIPEX) 2018 – is looking to facilitate enduring business alliances between local and international companies in Guyana’s emerging oil and gas sector.
As such, Chief Executive Officer of GO-Invest, Owen Verwey, is imploring Guyanese businesses and participants looking to be a part of GIPEX 2018 to ensure their standards are on par with international best practices since those international companies looking to partner with local businesses would in fact be looking for the ‘best of the best’. “I think the other thing we would like is for people to not just come and speak…come with some supporting facts on your entity and your experience behind you,” Mr. Verwey stressed.
The GO-Invest CEO was at the time speaking to OilNOW following the GIPEX 2018 launch at the Guyana Marriott Hotel on Wednesday, January 17.
Speaking to the strategic importance of joint ventures and partnerships, he drew reference to a confab organized in part by GO-Invest which targeted the Private Sector. “Part of that was to help entities understand that when you get to that level…you need to have some basics on your entities. You’re dealing with multinational companies. You’re dealing with more international companies which means you need to be a little more structured…You need to have some basic information and you need to be a little more product-focused,” he said.
GIPEX 2018 is being organized by UK-based Valiant Business Media with support from GO-Invest, and the Ministry of Natural Resources. Mr. Verwey had earlier told the official launching ceremony that among the key objectives of the tree-day event, “is to have an opportunity where Guyanese businesses in particular will be able to expand a little bit more on doing business in Guyana via activities coordinated by GO-invest…”
He said, too, the Government agency is looking to, through GIPEX 2018, “bring awareness to both sides – those who are seeking and those who have something to offer…The differences that exist in the two business areas – the Guyana market and those who are coming into Guyana – will also open up the opportunity for discussion as to how we can do the strategic alliances and strategic partnerships.”
GO-Invest, he said, envisions GIPEX 2018 as a platform to not only impress upon Private Sector organisations the avenues, “how one can benefit the other and just let the foreign businesses know that there are options here. As usual for us and the Ministry of Business, we usually encourage businesses coming into Guyana to enter some sort of partnership arrangement with those local business entities just to ensure that it is easy for them to enter the market.”
GIPEX 2018 – Guyana’s signature petroleum summit – is being held from February 7 to 9 at the Guyana Marriott Hotel. The inaugural summit and exhibition is expected to host more than 350 delegates from across the world and will see participation from over 50 local and international companies.
Among the delegates confirmed for participation are former premier of Alberta, Canada, Alison Redford, ExxonMobil Vice President Lisa Waters, CGX Energy Inc. Executive Director, Dr. Suresh Narine, and CAMAC International Corporation’s Dr. Kase Lawal.
International companies inclusive of Haliburton, Chevron, Repsol, Schlumberger, Petronas, Vinci Energies Oil and Gas, and the National Energy Corporation of Trinidad and Tobago Limited are also slated for participation.
