THE Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI) on Friday hosted its inaugural energy forum to spark public discussion on Guyana’s Sovereign Wealth Fund (SWF) Green Paper and how it will affect management of the impending oil sector.

In his welcome address, GCCI President Deodat Indar said that while the body is pleased to see that a Green Paper has been drafted, how this document is translated into a White Paper should involve national consultation.

“We believe that it is best that civil society and private sector and the country at large should have a say in how we shape this Sovereign Wealth Fund,” Indar said, as the discussion got underway at the Roraima Duke Lodge in suburban Kingston.
He, however, conceded that it is well-nigh impossible for one to have a discussion on the topic without first examining the energy issue in its entirety.

Some of the areas of the SWF he feels should be closely examined are: The level of the perceived political interference; how the sub-committee and fund managers were selected; and the availability of ample rules and guidelines.

He said that the GCCI is open to all questions, including those pertaining to Guyana’s absorptive capacity to guard against the dreaded ‘Dutch disease’, a term usually associated with the adverse effect discoveries in the extractive sector can have on other sectors of the economy; or whether there is an alternative to the current SWF structure.
A presentation on the SWF Green Paper, laid in the National Assembly by Minister of Finance Winston Jordan in August this year, was conducted by GCCI’s Executive Director Richard Rambarran.

He provided a synopsis of the details within the document for general understanding, while other presentations came from Attorneys-at-Law Christopher Ram and Charles Ramson (Jr).

Ram began by contending that the Green Paper is actually a White Paper, and that since the SWF has the potential to change the future of the country, the subject therefore requires a much more serious approach and greater consultation efforts.
He also bemoaned the fact that the citizenry is yet to be brought up to speed on the true production cost of the incoming oil-and-gas sector, and that this should be of great concern to the public.

“At least ExxonMobil, by now, should tell us what their price projections and our petroleum units are,” he said, “and our Department of Energy should be saying to us what is the price assumption you’re making.”

“And they should be asking ExxonMobil to tell us what is the cost of production.”
Ramson’s concern was more about persons being allowed to have a say in how the oil-and-gas industry will affect their future through consultations. He criticised the SWF, saying that it was too partisan. “You have to be able to have a say, and you have to know that your say is being heard and that the reflection of that ‘say’ is then translated into policy,” Ramson said.

“I’m not telling you not to support the government or not to support a particular group; I’m saying how do we do this in a sensible way,” he added. Indar also made public his reservations about the SWF, which he tied to a narrow macro-economic committee and sovereign investment committee.

He proposed that senior investment advisers and private managers, as stipulated in the Green Paper, be selected through a clearly defined process.

At the end of the presentations, general questions and suggestions came from members of the audience, to which the GCCI team provided their recommendations and solutions.