By: Amar Persaud
Vice President Dr Bharrat Jagdeo on Monday led a team that engaged with civil society on the final consultation of the draft Local Content Policy before its tabling in the National Assembly which is expected to be done on Thursday.
Joining the Vice President for the event at the Pegasus Hotel were Attorney General, Anil Nandlall; Natural Resources Minister, Vickram Bharrat; and Finance Minister, Dr Ashni Singh.
President of the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI) Timothy Tucker told INews that the exercise was considered a success and that he is looking forward to the tabling of the draft legislation in parliament.
“From all indications, the government has said that they would aim to have it tabled in parliament on Thursday…they were working towards Thursday but only they can say whether they will or will not,” he explained.
“The Government gave us brief synopsis of the legislation and the definition of what will be defined as a local company…a local company will be defined as Guyanese registered business that is 51 per cent owned by Guyanese, 75 per cent managed and 90 per cent employees which is your work force is 90 per cent local.”
“They also gave us some of the areas they’re looking to carve for locals and we would’ve had to advise them on what local capacity that we have to undertake those carve out areas…the schedules that we went through were similar to what we would’ve had except for the carved-out areas which would’ve had increased from 15 to now over 30,” Tucker further explained.
The GCCI Head also noted that the complete local content document is expected to be shared to stakeholders by tomorrow.
“We are waiting for the complete document to be shared, they’re doing their final reviews and the Vice President promised to share the final document sometime this evening or tomorrow morning and we are looking forward to the seeing the final document in its entirety.”
Meanwhile, Head of the Guyana Marine Conservation Society Annette Arjoon-Martins, who also attended the consultation, shared similar sentiments in an invited comment with INews.
“The Vice President gave a very eloquent presentation on what the whole local content bill is all about and it was a very well-attended stakeholder consultation, with a broad representation of civil society and the engagements were very productive…”
“Even Christopher Ram who was present, gave good remarks and compliments which. in itself, speaks volumes and I think the participants considered that consultation as a Christmas gift, cause it obviously meant so much in terms of the opportunities that will be enabled for Guyanese businesses, so it was very positive,” she shared.
Arjoon-Martins also revealed that there was a separate engagement with the attending organisations and the Minister of Natural Resources, which she thought was very productive.
“It went on about three hours and then followed by a committee being set up that participated in another three-hour session last evening with the Minister of Natural Resources to go through the list of services and the percentages that they want to have at least in the first year so it was generally very productive.”
“I think it was a very productive meeting, it wasn’t just talk with no action, it’s being dealt with in real time and the fact that we engaged in another three-hour session with the Natural Resources Minister Vickram Bahrrat, another 3 hours later to go through the list, I was astounded by the amount of people that participated. You could see that the younger entrepreneurs are very committed to engagement,” the environmentalist added.
Upon assuming office in August 2020, the PPP/C Administration embarked on a fresh round of consultations aimed at developing a proper Local Content Policy.
In fact, a Local Content Advisory panel was established by President Dr Irfaan Ali, and this body hosted several consultations with stakeholders.
Moreover, the Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union (GAWU), in a statement on this development, noted that many of its concerns were addressed by the government during the consultation.
“In recent times, our Union has outlined the dominance of foreign labour in the sector to the detriment of Guyanese. On several occasions we have drawn to the public’s attention that Guyanese workers, though qualified and capable, were sidelined and made to undertake roles for which they were more than qualified…the GAWU was, therefore, pleased that the Government, through the proposed legislation, was seeking to correct this malady,” GAWU explained.
The draft legislation addresses Guyanese participation, not only at the ownership level, but has gone deeper to speak to managerial and employment. “This requirement, alongside requirements to improve Guyanese participation in the coming years, will undoubtedly allow our workers to have a fair chance to be able to benefit from the sector and contribute to our development,” GAWU expressed.
