– local delegation in high praise of Houston oil and gas conference

THE Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI) has adjudged Guyana’s participation at the world’s largest Offshore Technology Conference (OTC) in Houston, Texas earlier in May, a resounding success.

On Wednesday, the Chamber of Commerce hosted a press briefing to speak on the matter which was attended by GCCI President, Nicholas Boyer; GCCI executive member, Vishnu Doerga and member, Charles Ramson Jr., among others.

Boyer described the experience, which ran from May 6-9, 2019 at the NRG Park, as a “success” while Ramson summarised it as “overwhelming” and “mind-blowing”.
The Guyanese trade mission, comprised over 20 businesses, set up a 600 square-foot Guyanese booth which had the potential to be visited by the over 60,000 business owners or investors present.

The mission focused on two primary activities. There were the booth for business-to-business (B2B) meetings and a Guyana Night for Information-Sharing and Business Networking.

It was made possible through collaboration between GCCI and the Guyana Office for Investment (GO-Invest).

On just the first day, the agencies reported high traffic at Guyana’s booths; healthy levels of interaction and information-sharing.

At the Guyana Evening, in a presentation from Boyer, the international business community was invited to “take the plunge” in investing in Guyana while other presenters dubbed the country as an easy place to invest.

There was also information shared on local policies and regulatory frameworks which assured attendees that the country’s laws are being revamped to cater for the smooth flow of investments.

VEHICLE TO SUCCESS
Speaking to the media on Wednesday, Ramson described the OTC as a “vehicle” through which the possibility for deeper engagement between businesses can be explored.
“What the conference does and what the trade mission does is that it opens the door for similar types of business that can create those alliances or joint ventures,” Ramson said.
He added: “We would have had many persons engaging already in advance of the conference and that gave them a good opportunity to sit and meet and discuss, because forming alliance or entering into a partnership is not just saying ‘oh, I like this company’; there are actually commercial terms for which you’ve got to make sure that you get the devil of the details correct so that it becomes a neat fit.”

He added that while Guyana may not yet be an oil producing country, businesses are competent enough to know they need to prepare themselves from now to fit into the supply chain of the future.

“If we are going to become serious businesses in oil and gas, we have to facilitate that transfer of both expertise and technology as well as machinery. So, we can either sit here and say ‘you guys come to us’ or we can be proactive about going and trying to get our business up to speed because there is a direct, vested interest in making that leap,” Ramson said.

Meanwhile, Doerga, the former chamber’s president, underscored the importance of ensuring that businesses under the GCCI are well educated on the direct and indirect benefits available through the oil and gas sector.

He noted that the chamber has completed missions in Canada and Scotland with the OTC now representing its third participation in such opportunistic trade shows.

“All of these missions were with the intent to better educate ourselves and to also understand who are the players in the market currently,” Doerga said.

Boyer told the media that based on the response witnessed at the OTC, the chamber is organising the participation of local businesses at another trade mission.

The mission, SPE Offshore Europe Conference and Exhibition, will take place in Aberdeen, Scotland, from September 3-6, 2019 and is expected to attract over 36,000 attendees.