— Aircraft Owners’ Association of Guyana supports Local Content legislation

THE Aircraft Owners’ Association of Guyana (AOAG) has expressed full support for Guyana’s Local Content Act, contending that the legislation provides the opportunity for Guyanese companies and people to become the primary beneficiaries of the development of the country’s oil and gas resources.

“The AOAG fully endorses the fact that our government, as is universally practiced by countries committed to the development of their oil and gas resources around the world and within our hemisphere, including Trinidad & Tobago, Suriname, Brazil and Canada, has dedicated legislation enabling the local private sector to compete on a global scale in the oil and gas industry,” the AOAG said in a release.

Representing the majority of Guyana’s domestic aviation services, the AOAG said it is particularly pleased that this legislation affords the local industry an environment for equitable participation and capacity building in the servicing of the oil and gas industry, in particular, and Guyana’s development in general, locally and internationally.

On Thursday, several other members of the business community took to social media to voice their outrage following a leaked e-mail from CARICOM Private Sector Organisation (CPSO) Chairman and President/Chief Executive Officer of the MASSY Group of companies, Gervase Warner, which alleges that Guyana’s Local Content Policy violates the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas.

The email which has been circulated across social media read, “At the Executive Committee today we agreed that the legislation appears to violate several provisions of the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas. As a result, the CPSO will take on raising these concerns first to the GoG and then ultimately to the Caribbean Community.”

The Private Sector Commission (PSC) in a statement Thursday night questioned the legitimacy of the CPSO which constituency consist of some Pan Caribbean companies and affirmed that the organisation does not represent the interest of the local private sector.

The commission noted that the purpose of Local Content straddles countries, regions and continents and forms an integral part of the petroleum sector.

“The PSC wishes to note, in fact, that Trinidad and Tobago has had in place for more than 50 years, a regime of local content ‘predicated on maximising citizens’ ownership, control and financing of all activities along the energy resources sector”, thus giving preference to Trinidadians.

“The commission is satisfied that the policies expressed in Guyana’s Local Content Act are not dissimilar to those of Trinidad and Tobago’s and do not violate the revised Treaty of Chaguaramas.

“We therefore stand by and fully endorse the aims and objectives of the Act which are designed to ensure that Guyanese companies and nationals benefit from the Oil and Gas sector,” the Private Sector Commission of Guyana said.