Guyana’s Minister of Business, Dominic Gaskin, said if the country wants to maximize the full value of local content from the oil and gas sector then it needs to build local capacity.
The Minister was at the time delivering an address at the closing ceremony for the Micro and Small Enterprise Development (MSED) project at the Herdmanston Lodge, Georgetown, on Thursday.
“We need to ensure that much of that oil money is spent in Guyana. Now, we are not going to get all of it, we are not even going to see half of it being spent in Guyana. We are not dreamers but in areas where we have a fighting chance we must put up a good fight and the good fight is about meeting the stringent requirements of large international corporations that are going to come to our country as a result of oil and being able to compete against large suppliers,” he stated.
He said, essentially this means that small businesses need to ensure that whatever goods and services are provided meet the appropriate international standards.
“Business owners must ensure that their businesses are efficiently managed so that they can price these goods and services as competitively as possible, because a local content policy will only be effective if there is local capacity and businesses of all sizes and sectors will need to build capacity if Guyana is to truly benefit from the increased demand we are likely to see in the coming decades,” he told those gathered.
Mr. Gaskin reminded that in an economy like Guyana all sectors will be impacted by the transformation that is taking place.
“This discussion about local content is not simply about the oil and gas sector but it is about using the oil and gas sector as a catalyst for developing other sectors and for raising the bar when it comes to standards and quality across all sectors,” he pointed out.
The Business Minister explained that the Government’s push for local content is to ensure that economic growth is matched with improved quality, efficiency and competitiveness of Guyanese businesses.
