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Two years later…Trotman now hands Local Content Policy to Business Ministry for completion
The “overwhelmed” Ministry of Natural Resources has been struggling to robustly put together a Local Content Policy for the last two years. In the interest of getting more work done on this front, Natural Resources Minister Raphael Trotman has decided to hand the job over to his colleague, Business Minister Dominic Gaskin.
Trotman made this revelation to Kaieteur News last week. He was at the time, providing an update on the policy.
The Minister noted that international Local Content expert, Mr. Anthony Paul, only a few days ago, returned a final draft on the policy.
Trotman said, “And we are going to be working on that. My intention is to have it finalized by the end of April. At the same time, (when it comes to) responsibilities for local content development, I have asked (Business Minister Dominic) Gaskin and his ministry to take charge of that.”
DRAFT POLICY
Guyana’s draft Local Content Policy has been criticized in recent months for lacking provisions, which would safeguard against exploitation by companies.
The draft has no information on how to avoid procurement fraud, conflict of interest and favouritism, among other crucial areas.
Instead, the Local Content Policy framework seeks to address the suite of opportunities that may arise and the approaches to be taken in selecting and developing opportunities related to enhancing the capabilities of Guyanese nationals and businesses.
Natural Resources Minister, Raphael Trotman
Business Minister, Dominic Gaskin
The Policy articulates that this will be done through training, development and employment initiatives (Capacity Development), ensuring availability of ownership participation for qualified Guyanese equity interest (Ownership Value), supplier development provisions for goods and services by locals to support sector operations (Local Content); and well-tailored social contributions for greater impact and benefits (Societal Benefits).
It also describes what will be done to ensure that the activities in the petroleum sector are conducted in a manner that transparently secures the maximum benefit for the people of Guyana, while recognizing the limitations of the country; and holding all actors accountable to the present and future generations of Guyanese who are the owners of the nation’s petroleum resources.
Additionally, the draft policy recognizes that the petroleum resources of Guyana belong to all its citizens, and represent an asset of significant intrinsic value, which once removed diminishes the wealth of the nation, unless there is transformation in value from resources below the ground to improved quality of life above it for current and future generations of Guyanese.
The draft says, “Guyana will approach the development of its petroleum resources, people and businesses in a pragmatic, transparent and accountable manner. This will be conditioned by existing circumstances and an analytical approach to understanding the resource, the activities it engenders and our input capabilities. We shall pursue strategic opportunities for local capacity development and participation that give us the maximum possible benefit now and in the future.”
The Policy also states that Guyanese will participate in a manner that gives preferred access and opportunities to improve and enhance the country’s capabilities so that it can become internationally competitive and in the end, the country will progressively provide a greater amount of future services.
Capacity development, to enable more value retention, will be treated as an investment, rather than a cost, the policy outlines.
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