Foreign Companies trying to beat Local Content law

Jun 18, 2022 News

…may see us ending up in court with a few—Jagdeo

Kaieteur News – With US$700M to be made annually through the protections and provisions offered under Guyana’s Local Content Laws, government is now engaged with a battle with some foreign companies that could likely end up in court over those ‘trying to beat the law.”
The revelation was made this past week by Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo, who during a recent press engagement at the Office of the President, drew reference to the International Community’s recognition of Guyana’s Local Content laws but remarked, “we passed a local content law and now a lot of people are trying to beat the law.”
These he identified as ‘foreign companies’ and suggested “we have a big battle with some of them trying to get to change the way they incorporate” a business, as an example.

Vice President, Bharrat Jagdeo

According to Vice President Jagdeo, there are some foreign companies in Guyana that are trying to use legal means to by-pass the preferences “we have given only to Guyanese.”
As such, Jagdeo was adamant “we have a strong position, (and) you may see us ending up in court with a few of them but we are not allowing this to happen.”
Elaborating further, Jagdeo told members of the local media corps “…some of them are creating shell companies” and gave as example those principals “getting somebody who has never been to Guyana over the last 20 years ago; a grandfather might have been here and then coming in suddenly and helping to incorporate.”
According to the Vice President, “…they are trying to use every single provision, so we have a battle there and it is only with the support of locals we would be able to fully realize these benefits.”
With this in mind, the Vice President sought to elucidate the rationale behind the moves on the part of foreigners saying “…just think about the carve-out, that a foreign company cannot rent any building except from a local for offices or for dwelling.”
He pointed too, to transportation services where companies such as Hertz which has found its way to Guyana would not be able to provide by itself.
The Vice President pointed to other sub sectors in such as security and cleaning services to be provided to the oil and gas sector under the protection of Guyana’s local content legislation.
Speaking to the quantum of benefits to be had which is in part motivating the foreigners, Jagdeo said, “We estimate that business to be around US$700M per annum…”