THE University of Guyana School of Entrepreneurship and Business Innovation (SEBI) in partnership with Ground Structures Engineering Consultants Inc (GSEC), FUGRO, Guyana Goldfields, Worley Parsons and the Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company, recently held a local content forum titled, “Local Content: A Mechanism for Capacity-Building towards Enhanced National Development.”

The two-day forum, which was held from July 23-24, 2018 at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre, had over 250 participants and was intended to educate the Guyanese populace on what local content is, answer questions and queries on how local- content policies can be beneficial to the government, private sector, local communities and more so, how it can facilitate Guyana’s national development.

Presentations were made by international, regional and local speakers, who shared their knowledge, research and experience, in an effort to generate a common understanding of the potential benefits of local-content policies and the conditions that led to successful outcomes of nations around the world.

The event’s programme discussed several topics, including: Local Content and Economic Growth, Combating the Dutch Disease, Skill Development and Knowledge Transfer through Local Content Policy, Social Consequences of Oil-and-Gas discovery, Building Sustainable Businesses through Local Content, Local Content and the Environment, and Education Investment and Local Content Policy.

Concerns were highlighted on how local businesses can be affected by the local-content policy, what new business opportunities can emerge as a result of the policy and how this will affect the way in which business is done in Guyana, with particular emphasis on national development goals around the green economy.

Professor Leyland Lucas, Dean of SEBI, in his address, said, “I am concerned that there are two things happening in our nation today, a great deal of noise about what local content is and its implications for our development and the development of the future generations.”
He further noted the importance of education to understanding issues of local content. “Local content is not just about doing business with oil-and-gas entities, it’s about building competencies and capabilities needed to transform this nation into a Green Economy,” the professor said.

University of Guyana Vice-Chancellor, Professor Ivelaw Griffith, opined that “Many of us are uncomfortable with the mediocrity we see in society, the cutting of professional corners, charging clients for one thing but giving them substandard products and service; we have got to practise what Aristotle recommended many years ago, when he said, ‘we are what we repeatedly do, excellence then is not an act it is a habit.”

Charles Ceres, CEO, GSEC, noted that, “Local-content policies must provide resources to the University of Guyana to ensure an appropriate curriculum is developed to train persons to address both the current needs of the natural resources sector and transference of those skills to other sectors of the economy.” He asserted in his feature address that companies operating in the natural resources sector must be involved in development of a local-content policy.

At the forum, all stakeholders demonstrated several examples of their approach to local content. Fugro highlighted its work with local firms in helping to build industry-specific capacity, while investing in education from the primary to the tertiary levels. These investments were seen as particularly beneficial to the broad society, as they help to enhance the opportunities for growth in the areas of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM).

Ground Structures, in their presentations, focused significantly on the training offered to its employees through its partnerships with other firms. Much of that training was both industry-specific and general, providing knowledge that could transform their contributions to the broader society.

Guyana Goldfields highlighted their focus on growing local businesses, many of which were not directly associated with the mining industry. These examples of local content emphasised ways in which firms could build capacity and managerial skills to become vibrant within the economy. Professor Lucas charged participants with the task of becoming local-content ambassadors. He suggested that all attendees inform their friends, neighbours and acquaintances about the importance of local content, what it means for the national agenda, how it could impact our lives, and the development of a vibrant economy.