An increasing number of local businesses are tapping into the oil and gas supply chain. This is an observation from the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI). Officials from the Chamber noted that some Guyanese entrepreneurs established new businesses to cater to the petroleum industry, while others introduced services to existing operations.
Junior Vice President of GCCI, Anije Lambert told OilNOW, “…A lot of businesses, because it’s such an emerging industry, are either in the process of creating new services or new companies as well, that can provide, or they can be a part of the oil and gas industry.”
Executive Director of GCCI, Richard Rambarran, pointed out that some of their member companies, while not registered or established as an oil and gas service provider, have been also benefiting from business opportunities from the sector. He said, “You’ll have companies whose core business is not oil and gas. They may be providing a particular type of service which will eventually be used by someone in the hierarchy of the oil and gas sector.”
The Chamber, in light of these opportunities, has been actively working to build their members’ capacity to serve the industry, despite the constraints that the coronavirus pandemic have presented. The Chamber’s Trade and Investment and Entrepreneurship Committees have been hosting a series of webinars on business development.
“We have already started. We’ve done about five so far. But these are linked to the areas that would have been identified in our previous physical business development forum where persons had indicated a number of areas that they believe the forum can actually incorporate to help them in their business and business growth,” Rambarran shared.
He added that these webinars have been well received by their members.
GCCI’s President, Nicholas Boyer-Deygoo, said despite the challenges that 2020 presented because of the pandemic, members were still able to form international business connections through engagements with the Chamber’s counterparts from Newfoundland, Canada and Aberdeen, Scotland.
“That was leveraging international partnerships to be able to connect members with similar businesses or businesses who may have products or services that our members are interested in,” he shared, adding that they also participated in a number of virtual events.
Boyer stated, “As a result, we saw a number of businesses announcing–and the announcements came in a couple of forms….we’ve seen joint ventures, we’ve seen businesses getting internationally certified for products and services that they have and we have seen new businesses being formed.”
