Govt. helps foot bill for Private Sector Energy Conference 2022

Feb 20, 2022 News

…event concludes with delegates in closed door session exploring ‘partnerships’

Kaieteur News – The Government of Guyana, using taxpayers’ dollars, contributed substantially into what has evolved into a Public Private Partnership (PPP)—the International Energy Conference and Expo 2022.

International Energy Conference and Expo 2022

The flagship event, which concluded on Friday last, saw in attendance Head of State of Ghana, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, Surinamese President, Chandrikapersad Santokhi and Barbados’ Prime Minister, Mia Mottley, among others.
Ahead of the activity, Communications Director for the event, Alex Graham gave the confirmation during a media briefing on Monday last at the Marriott International Hotel venue, where he told operatives that as is the case with State visits, the accommodations and other expenses will be borne, as is customarily done, by the visited country and as such the Guyana government will be funding that aspect of the privately organised Conference and Expo.
According to Graham, “the conference was put together (pause), I don’t want to say public private partnership because that’s too formal a title but in a sense that’s how a whole lot of it has evolved.”
He told media operatives however, that government would not be providing any cash support directly to the organisers and explained that, “…there are delegations that are coming here that include heads of State and Head of Government.”
To this end, he reiterated, “in as far as you have participation at that level you must have engagement with the government.”
In fact, according to Graham, “…these visitors are guests of the state and the state is providing the usual support the state provides when it has state visitors; the state is not providing any direct financing to the conference none at all.”
Reiterating his position Graham adumbrated, “we have invited participation and among those who have responded to our invitation are heads of state and governments and their delegations.”
He noted too, “…the state is determining on its own what those courtesies” it will provide “and we have no idea of what those things cost, that’s a matter for the state. The state is not providing any financing for the conference at any level.”
CEO for the Energy Conference and Expo, Angenie Abel at the time noted that there were some 40 local companies slated to participate at the activity in addition to more than 100 international operations.
It was noted however, that among the 40 local suppliers, were the Top Tier ExxonMobil Contractors operating with offices in Guyana such as Baker Hughes which formally opened its Office last week too and SBM Offshore which also recently opened local offices.
Of note too was the fact that the venue was filled to capacity with more than 500 individuals registered for in-person participation with another 500 registered for a virtual presence.
Asked to respond to recent allegations by the main opposition A Partnership for National Unity, Alliance for Change (APNU+AFC) with regards its perceived exclusion from the conference, Graham denied the assertion and informed media operatives that they were working with all stakeholders to ensure maximum participation.
The APNU+AFC in a public statement over the weekend had alleged that it had been sidelined from the activity alleging that organisers and the Government of Guyana had entirely excluded the elected Parliamentary Opposition.
To this end, the coalition was adamant “Guyana belongs to all Guyanese… One would have considered that the initiative put forward by H.E. Dr. Irfaan Ali for a ‘One Guyana’ would have been a selling point at such a conference which would have displayed Guyana internationally, but this current posture of deliberately excluding these elected officials only seeks to provoke aggression in an already toxified political atmosphere.”
Denying the allegations however, Graham told media operatives, “as far as I know there has been no effort at all to exclude any groups political or otherwise from participation in the concern; I don’t know there was an effort to include any specific group political and otherwise.”
Pressed further, Graham told media operatives, “I don’t think that we sat down to decide to invite these groups and not these groups; the conference has been promoted and people have reached out.”
According to Graham, “I don’t want to seem to be defending anybody; we have arranged for their participation in ways that everyone else has.”
The conference saw presentations coming from Guyana’s President, Irfaan Ali; Vice President, Bharrat Jagdeo; Minister of Natural Resources, Vickram Bharrat and Foreign Secretary, Robert Persaud.
Among the visiting dignitaries who graced the activity during the course of its four days were: ExxonMobil Chairman and CEO, Darren Woods, US Ambassador to Guyana, Sarah-Ann Lynch, Ambassador Fernando Ponz Canto, Head of the Delegation of the European Union to Guyana and Suriname, among others.
The four day event closed on Friday with a closed door session, “reserved for B2B meetings” where conference participants were matched with local companies they can explore partnerships with.”