Guyana is undoubtedly on the cusp of experiencing what can arguably be its biggest economic boom in decades. The Ministry of Finance projects that the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) will grow by 29.1% by 2020. All of the signs and economic writings are on the wall for this inevitability. When the likes of Nick Butler from the Financial Times declare,‘The hottest new prospect for the world’s oil industry in Guyana’, you must expect some attention of global finance. When you have the likes of China’s Foreign Minister, his Excellency Wang Yi visiting your capital and the likes of Narendra Darmodardas Modi expected to arrive, you know big things are happening.

World leaders are being updated by advisers and policy makers about this South American Jaguar economy that has discovered black gold. Our comparatively and relatively rich Caribbean neighbors are racing to Georgetown to sign documents of understanding. All of this is occurring at a rapid pace at the macro level, but how are you positioning for this at the individual level?

The question is being asked in every crevice of Guyanese society: “What will this oil do for me?” Seek to readjust your mindset and ask yourself: “What can I do with the opportunities that will present themselves in an oil and gas economy?” On the macro level, it is too difficult, bordering on the impossible to start an oiland gas company, it is too expensive.

The US 300 million revenues expected to be placed in the national treasury will certainly see its way into the national economy in some form. On the micro level, how are you positioning yourself to be in the money when this occurs? Go into the business of a filling station, go into the retailing of cooking gas, start an oil servicing company (Mobil, Shell, Agip, Chevron and Texaco, amongst others, rely on oil servicing companies such as Halliburton, Schlumberger and Transocean et al, for maintenance and servicing jobs), offer legal services in the oil and gas industry, start an oil spillage clean-up company, start an oil and gas TV programme, start blogging on oil and gas issues, start an oil and gas publishing company.

The point is being argued that too often, our conversations on oil and gas have been largely centred on the state and the dependence on same. Be cautious about this approach, we should seek to balance individual endeavour with state dependency, lest we fall into the social mindset of heavy reliance on the government to answer all of our prayers.

I fully get it. The aforementioned insistence on individual effort has to be considered against the backdrop of the economic, political and social structures that have existed in Guyana before independence and beyond. This system favours the privileged and the big capitalists. We see this over and over in the construction business and more. The individual can strain every creative and industrious sinew in their bodies, without the bureaucratic support and enabling environment, it all comes to nothing. Be that as it may, you are better served with the individual responsibility mindset. Think more of what you can do with this oil, instead of what oil can do for you.