Guyana’s Private Sector Commission (PSC) Chairman, Nicholas Deygoo-Boyer says the billions of dollars expected from oil production should be used to help develop infrastructure and unlock the power of human capital in the South American country.
In a recent virtual forum, Boyer said that oil and gas funds can help Guyana to build a sustainable economy by equipping entrepreneurs with the necessary tools while unlocking infrastructure. “…it means that we have to spend the funds coming in from the oil offshore and spend it in a way that unlocks infrastructure and the power of our human capital because I really believe that we have solid entrepreneurs…,” he stated, noting that integral to their development is having the “right tools”.
That infrastructure, he said, includes roads, potable water, electricity, and ICT.
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Access to capable infrastructure, the private sector official said, will allow entrepreneurs to find new avenues of doing more sustainable business, “whether it’s agro-processing and finding export markets to take the agriculture, move it through agro-processing lines and then export it out, creating larger industries than we had before.”
Addressing the agro-processing needs directly, Boyer said the biggest challenge to its growth is the cost of energy, and he pointed to the fact that the government is now examining a natural gas power project, for which work is expected to commence next year.
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Just last month, Guyana’s Foreign Secretary Robert Persaud said the country’s gains from its petroleum sector must be balanced with the development of other export sectors–which includes agriculture.
“We need to balance the gains from the oil and gas sector with the development of other export sectors, albeit on the basis of oil revenues so that we allow for sustainable development, new export products, and services to arise with the ability to compete in multiple lucrative markets,” Persaud said.
