-President Ali, international leaders and experts among speakers at today’s opening ceremony

OVER 650 delegates– attending virtually and physically– and some 150 businesses will be at the Marriott Hotel from today until Friday, to participate in Guyana’s flagship 2022 International Energy Conference and Expo.

The event is expected to put Guyana at the centre of the global discourse on energy, oil and gas and sustainable development.
At a press briefing on Monday, Communications Director Alex Graham and the event’s Chief Executive Officer, Angenie Abel, highlighted some of the goals and expectations for the conference.
“We want to demonstrate that in addition to being a very resource-rich [country], we can provide the quality, sound leadership for the development of these sectors and make our contribution to the future,” Graham said.

It was explained to the media that the conference is about leveraging Guyana’s rising oil and gas sector to finally bring some deserving global attention to the country.
“Guyana has been a country and a society that has been able to produce outstanding people that have done outstanding things. But we have never been able to extract the kind of global attention that we want to,” Graham commented.

He noted that while there has been much focus on Guyana’s natural resource, the conference is about placing Guyana in a global discourse and to present opportunities for the participating businesses.

“…the news reports about Guyana [about] how many barrels of oil, that is a great thing for us, but we want to demonstrate that we are more than that, that we can also contribute to the larger area of discourse and sustainability efforts; that is what this conference is about, that is the message that we want,” he highlighted.

Over 40 speakers are listed to make presentations at the conference, including four Heads of State and a number of ambassadors.
“We have worked as far as possible to put three main groups of people together — policy makers, practitioners and professors — into the same conversation about what the energy future is going to look like globally, how Guyana is going to be able to participate in that energy future, how Guyana is going to remain competitive and related subjects,” Graham said.

The Conference and Expo will begin today at 09:00hrs, with an opening ceremony that will see the key- note address being delivered by President Dr Irfaan Ali. Remarks will also be delivered by President of Ghana, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo; President of Suriname, Chandrikapersad Santokhi, and Prime Minister of Barbados, Mia Mottley.

Later in the day, a presentation will be made by Guyana’s Vice-President, Bharrat Jagdeo. There will also be a local content panel discussion that will include representatives from the Ministry of Public Works, Ministry of Natural Resources, SBM Offshore and the Private Sector Commission, among others.

Manager of the Centre for Business Development, Dr Natasha Gaskin- Peters, will also be leading a panel discussion on the “Skills needed for the progress of the energy industry in Guyana”; that will run from 15:15hrs to 16:15hrs.

“There’s a certain rhythm to the flow of this agenda. It starts with some policy issues,” Graham said, before highlighting that the conference will not just be about the policy-makers taking part, but rather about discussions that will influence policies going forward.

“Our goal in the conference is to provide a fertile environment for those conversations to take place. Policy-makers should leave here and go do their policy work, business should leave here and go do their business work. As a whole, our society and economy should benefit,” he said.

Businesses putting the final touches to their booths (Adrian Narine photo)

He further noted that, “There are entrepreneurs and service providers here who have to also understand how they can leverage and take advantage of the protection and opportunities provided. That’s a very important conversation. It may seem pro-business, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing, but there is a robust discussion in between those groups.”

Graham complimented the persons who have been working on putting the event together, noting that the team is almost entirely Guyanese and largely made up of young people.

He added that the team continues to do everything that it can to ensure that everyone who wanted to participate was able to do so, once they could have been accommodated.