A FRIEND of mine mentioned that the national discourse has not yet addressed the ways oil will impact Guyana’s role in the Caribbean and I must admit I agree. I want to focus on a particular element of that relationship: Guyanese firms and building up regional exportation, to illustrate what we need to do to fully benefit from our close relationship with the other Caribbean countries in the context of the oil economy.

In order to understand this, however, we need to pause and consider the Roman corvus, because that is essentially what we need now to build. A corvus is essentially a bridge with a hook one ship uses to latch onto another, and the Romans used this to board their opponents’ ships during the first Punic War. Historians note that at the Battle of Ecnomus, it was used with great effect to allow Romans to fight hand to hand, which we all know they excelled at, winning what has been described as the largest naval battle of all time.

But why did they go to the trouble of inventing this? I believe the thinking here is simple — the corvus allowed the Romans to exploit their competitive advantages. How do Guyanese now exploit the advantages oil will bring us? I want to again make mention of a Youth Bank, and point out that this institution would be far more valuable to the nation than we might at first perceive.

While visiting that famous hub of innovation, Stanford University’s campus, I one evening came across a poster that mentioned so-called Angel investors, who fund innovative projects in the hope they will become the next giant corporation. It seemed those investors were coming directly to meet with students, and as a Guyanese unfamiliar with large sums of money being handed out to fuel such creativity, this very much shocked me. Free money for my ideas? But I have ideas all the time!

But when you step back and think about this, the funding flowing through that campus was forming in a way the core of US competitiveness, as the research and testing students were doing in pursuit of funds would find its way into not just the firms students created, but US industries as a whole. We have very few, almost no businessmen locally willing to fund a wide array of such projects and as a whole, I would say the investment climate is very risk-averse.

Investing oil money in a youth bank which aims to fund basic research and development, as well as offers grants to start-ups with profitable ideas will help fill this gap. It is a classic example of the type of government intervention economists would strongly support. Just like infrastructure, which individual companies are loath to put in place because of onerous costs, individual Guyanese investors appear to be unwilling to jump in when returns are not guaranteed. And indeed, it is fair to ask who would without a few successful local examples of technology firms, given the risks.

But these examples will come, the returns to technological advancement are too great to be ignored forever, and a youth bank will certainly speed this process up. We need to put oil revenues into developing what I call our “intellectual infrastructure,” with institutions such as this Youth Bank and the University of Guyana at the core of an advancing economy. Even further, however, over time this will also develop the local corvus, the Great Bridge, and that is the real goal.

Guyana’s long -term ability to invest in research and development will outstrip that of its peers for the foreseeable future and as our businesses benefit from innovations coming out of this, their competitiveness will grow at a rate difficult for regional competitors to match. This will in turn allow them to begin to dominate some international markets, the Caribbean being a prime example, and thereby massively increase their growth potential. The purpose of a Youth Bank is not just to employ young people, but to help Guyanese businesses surge. This will be the beginning of an economic transformation.

I want to close with a word of caution, as a misunderstanding of business competitiveness can often derail development ideas that have great potential. We do not need to attempt to compete in every industry possible, as this makes little economic sense. Projects which merely copy existing ones, or don’t build off of any local competitive advantages, are just not good enough. Business common sense should always prevail, lest resources are mismanaged.

Too little energy in the current oil debate is being focused on ideas such as these, which will make Guyanese businesses shine for decades to come. And that’s much of what government’s role is, even though we seem hardly to ever frame things this way. It’s not just about which community gets what. It’s not just about which official said what. It’s about where the country is going. That’s what I felt, at my core, every time I visited Stanford — things were moving forward. With a Youth Bank to promote innovation, they will be here too.