“Get compliant with industry standards, and the oil companies can’t rule you out” – GCCI tells local businesses
Local businesses have been operating just fine for the level they’re currently at. But when oil starts pumping, a relatively increased amount of cash will start coming in. Companies are already here who operate on a global scale. At that level, they expect the companies they do business with to hold their operations to certain standards. While there is much advocacy for local content legislation, local companies have a part to play. To ensure those standards are met, local companies will need to secure certification.
Senior Vice President of GCCI, Timothy Tucker
Senior Vice President at the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI), Timothy Tucker, said that if locals get compliant with global industry standards, the international players can’t rule them out.
“You will get contracts.” Tucker said, during a press conference at the Chamber’s headquarters, last Tuesday.
The Chamber had had its inaugural business development forum in 2018, which focused on making businesses competitive and compliant with industry standards. Now, it has the second forum slated for September 27-28, 2019.
In a bid to establish a cultural emergence of Guyanese businesses onto the international stage, the Chamber is hoping to get micro, small, medium and large scale enterprises to all congregate for this critical forum, ahead of first oil.
Tucker explained, “If we take our largest corporations in Guyana and compare them to the turnover of those companies, these are small businesses.”
GCCI is hoping to bring tools used all over the world to the local stage.
Executive Director of the Chamber, Richard Rambaran, said that at this juncture, information is key, and that local businesses need to understand where to position themselves in the Petroleum sector.
The forum will be held at the Savannah Suite, Pegasus. To pull it off, GCCI has partnered with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), Ansa McAL Group of Companies, Ministry of Business, Cacique Accounting College, Republic Bank Guyana Limited, and several others.
This year, the theme of the forum is “Evolve Your Brand, Fuel Your Finance” and it will focus discussions on two main areas of business development.
The first, Marketing, will be headed by four speakers. Vishnu Doerga of ActionCoach Guyana; Rosh Khan of SocialRank Media; Rowen Willabus of IntellectStorm; and Sara Bharrat of Conservation International, will delve into various marketing issues.
The second area of focus for the forum will be Finance, Projects and Investment. The speakers are GCCI’s very own Executive Director, Richard Rambaran; Lyndell Danzie-Black of Cerulean Inc.; Ramesh Persaud of Institute of Private Enterprise Development (IPED); Fazal Bacchus of Cacique Accounting College; Nigel Deosaran of Aspire Investment Group; and Eric Hansen from the Inter-American Development Bank, who will present on opportunities in the budding Oil & Gas Sector.
