“I will lead from the front wherever bold decisions are needed” – President Ali

President Dr Irfaan Ali over the past few days assented to the Local Content and Natural Resource Fund Bills, and with these two critical pieces of legislation now signed into law, they will form the catalyst for the Government’s plans to develop Guyana and enhance the lives of Guyanese.
While the Local Content Bill was assented to on Friday, the Head of State assented to the NRF Bill along with the Fiscal Management and Accountability (Amendment) Act on Thursday. These bills were passed in the National Assembly on Thursday amid protest from the parliamentary Opposition.
In objection to the passage of the NRF Bill, the APNU/AFC Members of Parliament started protesting in the House and this escalated into a confrontation between coalition MPs and Parliament staff after one of the Opposition Members snatched the Parliament Mace from in front of the House Speaker. This was in addition to blowing whistles while walking around in the pit of the Assembly and surrounding Finance Minister Dr Ashni Singh as he was making his presentation.
The Opposition wanted to send both the NRF and Local Content Bills to a parliamentary Special Select Committee for review. But their disruptive and confrontational behaviours were in vain and the PPP/C managed to pass both pieces of legislations.

But during the signing of the Local Content Bill into law on Friday, President Ali posited that “…as President of Guyana, I want to make it clear that wherever bold decision is needed, I will lead from the front. As a Government and as a President, I’m not going to hide behind any curtain. We have to take this country forward; all of us as one. We have to ensure that we dismantle barriers and build a cohesive vehicle that moves forward for the benefit of this country.”
Focusing on the Local Content Bill, the Head of State reminded that the legislation is “alive” and will pave the path for a dynamic journey for the country and its people.
“We are now at the infancy stage and the development of the oil and gas sector with bring with it, changes… So, the bill itself is a bill that would be alive; a bill that would be reviewed every so often in the context of our own development in the oil and gas sector,” he explained.
The President further acknowledged the efforts of all the stakeholders who participated in tedious consultation sessions and played a part in the crafting of these two critical pieces of legislations that will guide relevant activities and operations in Guyana’s oil and gas sector. He was particularly pleased with the input of young people in this process.
However, the Guyanese leader posited that there will be many initiatives that his Government will roll out in the new year that will see more Guyanese benefitting from vast opportunities.
“There are many initiatives that we will pursue next year that we are going to announce and put to the Private Sector to mobilise local financing and local involvement – projects of tremendous magnitude so that we have achieved the full potential our Private Sector and the people of this country. In those projects, we would like to see all segments of the population involved but we would like to see leadership from the Private Sector,” the president noted.
According to the Head of State, the new year will not be without challenges especially with the uncertainty in the global supply chain and commodity prices. He disclosed that the effects of these are already being witnessed in “Big Capitals” where shelves are empty.
This, he added, will be compounded by more countries going into lockdown in light of the new COVID-19 variant, while the global vaccination rate is not advancing.
“The challenges would be enormous but we must confront these challenges and we must win. It is not only confronting the challenges to survive; it is confronting the challenges to win and this Local Content Bill gives us the opportunity for Guyanese to win. It sets the framework for Guyanese to win,” President Ali contended.
The Head of State outlined that Guyana’s projected unprecedented economic transformation and growth, will not only be confined within the nation but will also see prosperity being spread across the Caribbean region and beyond as the country simultaneously pursues its obligations to pertinent issues such as multilateralism and climate change.
The signing of the Local Content Bill on Friday was done in the presence of Cabinet members as well as key stakeholders from various sectors in Guyana.