Gov’t to conduct sensitisation workshops to promote awareness of Local Content Act

Before the end of the year, the government will begin hosting sensitisation workshops across the country to ensure that more Guyanese are educated on the importance of the Local Content Act.

Minister of Natural Resources, Vickram Bharrat, said that these workshops will also target communities in the hinterland and far-off regions to engage them on the massive opportunities available to them through the components of the act.

“Most of the time, the criticism is that only Region Four, or only Georgetown businesses are the beneficiaries through the local content legislation. We want to ensure that that is not the reality, so it is important that we sensitise businesses outside of the urban areas, so we will be venturing into Region Six, Region Ten, Region Two, and even the hinterland regions to explain to them how they can truly benefit through this legislation,” he told reporters at a press conference at the Guyana Forestry Commission on Tuesday.

He added that the legislation is a significant step for Guyana, especially since it is one of the newest petroleum-producing countries in the world. The implementation of this legislation speaks volumes about the pace of the sector’s development, as well as the government’s dedication to ensuring that Guyanese are able to actively participate in the sector.

Importantly, the government has committed to continuously reviewing and improving the act to ensure optimum benefits for Guyanese. As such, the minister noted that the workshops will help to garner a fair understanding of the country’s available capacity to facilitate upgrades to the First Schedule of the act.

This section sets out 40 different services that oil and gas companies and their sub-contractors must procure from Guyanese companies.

“It makes no sense to increase targets or services when we don’t have the capacity in-house. What we have seen, though, over the last year or so, is that most investors coming in to Guyana, whether they are involved in one of the services under schedule one or not, they are already looking for a local partner. So, the legislation has actually brought that positiveness to it for the local private sector,” the natural resources minister added.