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During the discourse, which was moderated by Chief Executive Officer of Sagacity Inc. Mr. Christopher Chapwanya, President of the Chamber, Mrs. Kathy Smith provided a candid overview of the GCCI’s focus on local content and ensuring benefits for local companies that are in partnerships with foreign companies. She noted that the GCCI was the proponent of local content legislation in Guyana. She also provided insights into the development of the local private sector’s development, as well as the growth of the Chamber’s membership to close to 1000 over the last several years.

Meanwhile, Chief Executive Officer of the Guyana Office for Investment, Dr. Peter Ramsaroop spoke of the country’s measured and integrated plan of development—one that is focused on the modernisation of the pre-oil and gas industries and the development of new industries. He also emphasised the importance of aligning investment with local content utilisation.

Councillor and Executive Member of the GCCI, Mr. Richard Rambarran, who is an Economist, provided the audience with his perspective on the country’s economic development and the safeguards that have been implemented to protect from “overheating of the economy,” saying, “Everyone wants to know that the economy and the environment that they are coming into is one that is stable and ensuring that one guards against direct exposure to price volatility is of paramount importance.” He pointed to Guyana’s Natural Resource Fund, which is the country’s Sovereign Wealth Fund, as one of these safeguards as it ensures that there are resources available for the stable and sustainable growth of the government’s work programme.

Also part of this discourse was President of ExxonMobil Guyana Limited, Mr. Alistair Routledge who reflected on the company’s journey from exploration and discovery to production. “…Just last week we produced 668,000 barrels per day of crude from three developments,” he stated, also announcing that the fourth FPSO will be operational by August 2025, which will increase the daily production to 900,000 barrels per day.

Among the Guyanese businesses present on the GCCI’s delegation is Blue Water Shipping, a transport and logistics company.

Senior Vice President of the company, Mr. Richard DeNobrega spoke of the importance of capacity-building in the local content journey. “Some of the most successful companies in Guyana right now are the companies that have balanced training and capacity enhancement with investment,” he stated. He disclosed that Blue Water Shipping made this a key focal area in the development of the company by training their employees at an internationally accredited freight-forwarding academy based in Europe.

Director of the Vreed-en-Hoop Shore Base, Mr. Nicholas Deygoo-Boyer also spoke of local content development, providing a different perspective—local companies investing in developing the infrastructure that was needed for the energy sector. He said, “We recognised that one of the things that were missing from Guyana was critical infrastructures for Exxon’s operations. When we conceptualised this, we looked at those factors and then we internally made the decision—are we willing to take the risk and invest?” He said that he and his partners listened to the stakeholders within the industry and the projections for the industry in Guyana, adding, “The risk was there on paper, but our gut and instinct told us that we felt very confident that it was a very safe bet.”