Many opportunities still available for firms that don’t qualify under local content law – VP

President Dr. Irfaan Ali on Tuesday said there are currently over 1,000 companies on the local content register. During his address to participants of the 2025 Energy Conference and Supply Chai Expo, the President emphasised that the local content legislation has led to many benefits for Guyanese.

Through the Local Content Secretariat under the Ministry of Natural Resources, the President said millions of dollars in business opportunities are garnered. “The secretariat supports approximately US$743 million of business opportunity annually,” he noted.

The Government has managed to support local content while still encouraging foreign investments, a topic on which Vice President Dr Bharrat Jagdeo was questioned on during a subsequent forum at the Energy Conference.

In response, he noted that the administration has managed to match local content requirements with the capacity of the Guyanese business sector while leaving room for foreigners to invest in areas where the country needs capacity building.

“We did it in a very practical sense. We look at the capacity of the locals…before we made any provisions in the law for them. We had a push back from the locals [as] some of them thought that we should have done more and we said progressively as we build capacity, we can then expand the list of preferences but we’re not going to push cost unreasonably to have people collect an economic rent for being Guyanese,” he explained.

The Vice President said this model has worked well based on feedback from the oil and gas companies.

“And there are numerous opportunities still in Guyana for companies that do not qualify under the local content law,” Jagdeo added.

The Local Content Act currently outlines 40 different service areas that oil and gas companies and their subcontractors must procure from Guyanese and Guyanese-owned companies.

These include 90 per cent of office space rental and accommodation services; 90 per cent of janitorial services, laundry and catering services; 95 per cent pest control services; 100 per cent local insurance services; 75 per cent local supply of food; and 90 per cent local accounting services.