THE International Energy Conference and Expo Guyana which opened on Tuesday last, has grabbed the headlines of all the leading newspapers in Guyana and for that matter the entire media including social media; and for good reason. Oil and gas is a big deal for Guyana and its several stakeholders both within the country and overseas.

The conference provided an opportunity to have an open conversation on the future of oil and the impact oil can have on the future development of the country and for that matter the entire region. As to be expected, there will be differences in perspectives and in some cases divergent views but at the end of the day it is the greater good of the society that is of overriding concern.

This could very well be Guyana’s moment. The conference is taking place at a time when the country is continuing to discover large deposits of hydro-carbons which could change the geo-strategic importance of the country as a key and influential player on the global petroleum stage. But at a more fundamental level, it could transform our historical destiny as a supplier of raw materials with all the accompanying disadvantages as ‘price takers’ and a historical victim of the so-called dependency syndrome.

Our oil resources belong first and foremost to the Guyanese people. It is part and parcel of our national patrimony. Our fore-parents came to Guyana as slaves and indentured labourers to toil in the sugar plantations, having never dreamt of a day when oil could become another lynch-pin of the economy and overtake sugar as a major source of foreign exchange.

This is why the benefits of oil must first and foremost be to the advantage of Guyanese, a point emphasised by President Dr. Mohamed Irfaan Ali, who during his address to the conference made it abundantly clear that while the foreign capital is welcomed in Guyana, it must come at the right price and that the government’s focus is fuelled by long-term development of energy with the benefits of its citizens being paramount.

One way of ensuring that Guyanese benefit from the proceeds of oil is by way of the recent local content legislation, which in effect stipulated that locals must benefit from existing and future development projects and plans. According to President Ali, “local content is not about not welcoming investors; we welcome investors from Exxon, be it the international investor Hess, every single stakeholder, whether you are regional or international, we welcome you… but all we are saying is that space for technological transformation, collaboration, local growth and competitiveness, increased productivity must be built into the system to be of benefit to the people of the country.”

This would require, as Barbadian Prime Minister Mottley observed, some difficult conversations which requires maturity and a commitment to frankness. President Ali has demonstrated that when it comes to protecting the national interests and that of the Guyanese people, no effort is too much and no opportunity will be spared. For all of that, we owe a debt of gratitude to our President for putting Guyana first while at the same time working collaboratively to advance the regional integration movement.

The President could not have been any clearer when it comes to the position of the PPP/C administration on the issue of local content. “We are going to state directly the narrative. There is no need for any interpretation; that is the narrative. We are pursuing this path; we know of the responsibility we speak about. We welcome investors, but we believe that local opportunities, the private sector and every single Guyanese and regional stakeholder must be part of the prosperity and benefit from the prosperity.”

Similar sentiments were expressed by the Prime Minister of Barbados, Mia Mottley, who supported the idea of protected opportunities for citizens of a country to participate in their national patrimony. According to her, “the day that we do not provide opportunity for our citizens who participate in active citizenship of being able to benefit from the patrimony of our country is the day we sow the seeds of destruction of our nation and invite destruction.”

These are indeed deep and profound thinking on the part of our leaders and speaks to a concern that it is not possible to speak of human development unless the riches of the country are shared in a fair and equitable manner by those that matter most, the Guyanese people.