–President Ali says
THE Government of Guyana has signalled plans to examine the country’s local content legislation to include Persons Living with Disabilities (PWDs), President Dr. Irfaan Ali has announced.

The Head of State while addressing a gathering at a sod turning ceremony for a new Hospital in New Amsterdam, Berbice (Region Six), on Sunday, disclosed that the first Business Innovation Centre for PWDs will soon be commissioned in the region and to complement this project further, officials will be exploring the Local Content Act 2021 to create opportunities within the oil and gas for PWDs.

“I want to examine the local content legislation to see what services in the oil and gas sector can be redirected to people living with disability, so we create an enabling environment to bring equity to the development paradigm of the country. When I said I want everyone to be included and no section of our society to be left behind. This is what I meant,” the Head of State said.

The country’s Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs Anil Nandlall announced last year that the country would update its local content laws to reflect the learnings and recommendations from stakeholders in the growing oil and gas industry.

On December 31, 2021, the Government of Guyana passed the Local Content Act 2021. Subsequently, it published several related guidelines that were designed to maximise the participation of Guyanese companies wherever they have the skills and capacity to get involved, beginning with services such as office space rental, janitorial services, laundry and catering services, pest control services, insurance services, supply of food and accounting services and extending through long-term involvement in highly skilled subsectors like subsea installation, geophysical analysis and engineering.

The Local Content Act was designed with the overarching goal that Guyana’s oil and gas industry can support an economy where small and medium-sized businesses can grow, thrive, and benefit from the country’s burgeoning oil and gas industry.

The laws aim to ensure that companies operating in the country hire a certain percentage of local workers and use a certain percentage of local goods and services. These percentages are set to steadily increase as local workers and companies gain capacity and knowledge until Guyanese provide many services and fill most of the industry’s jobs.

BUSINESS CENTRE
Addressing the establishment of the business centre, President Ali noted that the initiative will be replicated in several other regions.
The initiative for the business centre came from First Lady Arya Ali, and upon completion, it will facilitate the manufacturing of products, and offer retail space, technical training, and therapy for persons living with disabilities.

The centre will have five workstations for production, a boardroom, a therapy room, a cafeteria, and washroom facilities. The commercial space’s goal is to provide PWDs with a platform to market the goods they produce.

The Guyana National Bureau of Standards (GNBS) was approached to regulate and monitor the facility’s production, which will allow for the “Made in Guyana” certification to be applied to the products.
This certification will open up opportunities for the products to be marketed locally, regionally, and internationally.