Guyanese deserve a fighting chance for oil contracts – GCCI Official
Kaieteur News – While the People’s Progressive Party/Civic Administration has received much commendation for the extensive consultations that were held on the draft Local Content Policy, some of the document’s provisions still come in for heavy criticism as they have been deemed to be “too ambitious” or “unrealistic.”
Specifically, much of the attention has been on the 111 services being proposed to have, at minimum, 30 percent participation from Guyanese. With a population of approximately 700,000 people, several industry stakeholders have said this is ludicrous, while pointing out that Brazil with over 20 million people struggled to have its citizens supply 90 services in the oil industry. As a result, the Portuguese-speaking nation was forced to reduce its local content targets for the sector.
With this in mind, some stakeholders have said that Guyana should temper its expectations for the sector.
Upon taking note of this however, Senior Vice President at the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI), Timothy Tucker, noted that he does not agree with the popular opinion. Tucker said that all opportunities should be available to Guyanese, even if it is believed that the capacity does not exist at the moment to supply certain technical services.
Tucker said, “We have to realise that we do not have the capacity to do everything, but it does not say that I cannot find a partner to take on the toughest one or the most lucrative contract to supply a service in the sector. I can safely say that there is no way I can do underwater diving with remotely operated equipment and deepwater fabrication or anything like that, but maybe I can compile a good proposal and put it to Government or I can find a partner…”
The GCCI official continued, “But the thing is that we cannot limit ourselves. We should not set a limit, we should add as much as we want to the policy. It is a policy, and it can be reviewed over time and it should say that Guyanese should be given the first consideration. We are not going to say that you have to give us, but consider us….”
At least, the very least, Tucker appealed that Guyanese be given a fighting chance to win oil contracts. “It is our oil after all,” he concluded.
