As Guyana’s oil and gas industry promises to emerge as a dominant force in the country’s economy, the business community will next week be looking to highlight opportunities and challenges in several other key sectors in its push to develop a diversified economic development plan.
A Business Summit, being organized by the Private Sector Commission (PSC) with support from the Inter-American Development bank (IDB), will be held on October 11-12 at the Guyana Marriott Hotel, under the theme; Challenges and Opportunities for Business Growth and Expansion. It will see participation from the Government of Guyana, Opposition Parties, donor organisations and Civil Society.
Presentations will be made on key areas of the Guyana economy followed by a series of panel discussions on cross-cutting issues which affect those sectors. Chairman of PSC’s Trade & Investment Committee, Deodat Indar, told OilNOW on Tuesday it is of vital importance that efforts are made from an early stage, to ensure other critical sectors are not neglected and ultimately overshadowed by the oil and gas industry.
“The private sector’s view is that oil and gas is a component of our overall economic development. It is not a super sector; it is an economic sector just like the other economic sectors. So we need to see the development of the oil and gas sector, not in isolation, but in collaboration with the other economic sectors,” he said.
Indar, who also serves as the current President of the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI), said with a diversified mix of economic sectors, Guyana will be best positioned to withstand shocks from oil and gas price volatility.
Speaking at a press conference to launch the event held today at PSC’s headquarters in Georgetown, Executive Director, Elizabeth Alleyne, said the all-inclusive Summit will see various presentations being made on the key sectors of Guyana’s economy, as well as panel discussions. The ultimate objective of the private sector, she pointed out, is to have a document produced at the end of the Summit that will guide the formation of an Action Plan for Economic Development.
PSC’s Vice President, Desmond Sears, said the time has come for all stakeholders to work together for the economic prosperity of the country, driven by the private sector, which functions as the engine of growth in an economy.
Guyana’s President, David Granger, will be delivering the keynote address at the opening of the Business Summit on October 11 and key members of the Opposition Party have already committed to participating in the event.
Presentations will be made on a number of sectors, including agriculture, forestry, manufacturing, tourism, commerce and the extractive industry. Panel discussions will cover areas such as energy, markets, taxation, sourcing capital, and human capital development.
