By Kurt Campbell
A first-of-its-kind local content summit got underway in Georgetown on Tuesday and it is expected to kick start the long-awaited discussions and, by extension, government consultations towards reforming the Local Content Act which has been on trial for just over a year.
Organised by MBW Energy Support Services Inc. with support from the Local Content Secretariat, woman entrepreneur, Abbigale Loncke-Watson is spearheading the one-day summit which affords locals an appropriate platform to share their success stories and challenges in the oil and gas sector, particularly since the Local Content law came into the effect in January 2022.
No doubt local businesses have benefited but the summit, as Loncke-Watson articulated, the summit is a push for equity.
Among the features of the summit is an equity and connection room to allow for business-to-business sessions with the hope of using the occasion to foster partnerships.
“We are not simply here for a moment, we are here to make local content is the priority,” Loncke-Watson said.
Some 200 businesses and individuals are participating in the event.
NOT A FAN OF SUMMITS
Vice President, Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo, addressed the short opening ceremony and clarified that the summit was supported by the government on one premise – that the government was ready to kick-start the discussions on legislative reforms.
“We are not a big fan of summits…we thought we would support one summit, a seminal major one, once a year for Guyana at which all of the discussions can take place,” the Vice President said.
Already, this support is with the annual Energy Conference and Expo for which two installments have been successfully held with the government’s full support.
“We thought the summit is sufficiently narrowly focused that it could allow great value in discussions to kick start the review; the government plans to amend the local content legislation,” Jagdeo said.
He told the gathering at the Pegasus Corporate Suites in Kingston, Georgetown that the government will use the summit to clarify its position but also intends to pay keen attention to the feedback from local businesses and individuals.
“We are here to listen. It is the first of a series of meetings to be held over the next several months to look at since the passage of the legislation [and] how we have done as a country,” the Vice President highlighted.
The only other senior government official to speak at the summit is the Minister of Natural Resources, Vickram Bharrat.
The News Room understands that the government, on a subsequent date, will meet with more businesses and individuals, the labour movement, private sector representative bodies and first-tier contractors, among others operating in the oil and gas sector.
Somen 500 companies have already been granted local content certificates to operate in the sector even as Jagdeo pointed out that while many have attained the 51% ownership necessary, there have been manoeuvrers to flout the law.
MEDIA RESTRICTED
It should be noted that the media was not officially and collectively invited to provide coverage of the event.
Media operatives who showed up were responding to an advertisement that was posted on social media.
They were afforded an opportunity to hear the opening speeches of Dr. Jagdeo and Loncke-Watson but prevented from sitting through the panel discussions that followed, including discussions on how various-sized businesses have capitalised on opportunities to start up, expand, diversify or explore winning partnerships as a result of the advent of local content requirement.
