See full statement below:
The Guyana Manufacturing and Services Association (GMSA) supports the call for Local Content Legislation that is enforceable and clear-driven by the imperatives of the creation of Local Jobs, Knowledge Transfers, skills training, capacity building and international accredited certification.
We are strongly of the view that a critical evaluation should be undertaken of all foreign based companies that have been provided with concessions by GO-INVEST and the Government. We urge the Government of Guyana to do so in order to ascertain whether there exists any Guyanese Company that have been and/or will be disadvantaged as it relates to unfair competition particularly within our Manufacturing and Services Sectors and beyond.
Local manufacturers continue to face the hardship of being unable to enjoy the same benefits as foreigners entering into the country primarily to maximize the benefits associated with the new oil and gas industry. For this reason, the GMSA would like that emphasis should be placed on the need to derive more benefits from Guyana’s natural resources. It is therefore imperative for policymakers to include robust provisions in our local content policy to ensure the full maximization of local resources across Guyana.
We acknowledge the help and support to the CLDB and its dedicated mostly Guyanese Staff in certifying Guyanese Companies in addition to its advertising portal.
The GMSA strongly recommend that the objective of local content policy should revolve around definitive short-term benefits of natural resource extraction into long-term local economic development outcomes through capacity building, institutional strengthening via strategic policy intervention to promote domestic economic linkages, creation of employment and the participation of local Small and Medium-scaled Enterprises (SMEs) in the value chain through the supply of goods and services to the sector.
Laying a solid foundation for the implementation of local content policies through appropriate legal and regulatory framework is imperative if the desired outcomes are to be achieved.
To date we have observed that there are no dedicated monitoring and evaluation mechanisms and/or institutions empowered with regulatory authority and autonomy to ensure the implementation of local content policy in Guyana. As such, the GMSA believes that an independent Commission should be an obvious body to remedy this anomaly. In this context GMSA supports the formation of a Local Content Commission to ensure that the intended goals are achieved and for necessary policy adjustments to be made if and when these become necessary.
In order to ensure that the intended objectives of National Development is realized via a pertinent and realistic Local Content Policy in operation, we wish to politely recommend to the Government of Guyana to take a hard look at the GHANIAN MODEL OF LOCAL CONTENT LEGISLATION and its accompanying procedures and institutions.
We remain committed to the encouragement of FDIs and look forward to working with all stakeholders in this regard in an equitable, fair and measurable way.
