“Government alone cannot do it. Government alone cannot provide employment for all of its people. We need the private sector. So, the private sector is a partner to us in development and in helping to create jobs and opportunities for Guyanese.”
Natural Resources Minister, Vickram Bharrat
This statement was made by Natural Resources Minister Vickram Bharrat as he addressed the attendees, most of which made of the private sector, at the Guyana National Bureau of Standards (GNBS) National Quality Awards (NQS) recently.
The minister stressed on the fact that the private sector is key player in Guyana’s development, and therefore, the Government will be supporting the sector in every way possible.
“…we will continue…as a Government to create and provide incentives for the private sector, we will continue to work with you to grow the private sector,” the Minister assured.
“We will continue to work with you, so that you can provide quality goods and services because we need to compete regionally and internationally.”
Bharrat made it clear that the top priority is making sure Guyanese as a whole are the main beneficiaries in all of the sectors.
To this end, he made note of the fact that the local content legislation – which is in its drafting stage and expected to be presented to the National Assembly soon, be in the best interest of indigenous companies, however, it will not be created as a shield of protection for local companies that do not up keep the level of standards that is being targeted. This level being that of the first world countries.
“Local content is important to ensure that Guyanese and Guyanese businesses benefit from our resources. That is the whole idea. That is the whole purpose of ensuring that we have a strong local content policy in place, supported by the requisite legislation – to ensure that our homegrown indigenous companies, our Guyanese companies, benefit from this sector and all the other sectors, not only oil and gas.”
“The local content legislation…will not be passed in the national assembly to protect mediocracy by local companies. The local content legislation will not be passed to give you monopoly. We need to compete on the international stage, we need to compete on the regional stage,” he said.
Additionally, he further implored that “our goods and services and the prices associated with it must be competitive… we must boast and pride ourselves in providing quality goods and services. And that is where the GNBS will play a more meaningful role as we move forward in growing the oil and gas sector and the other sectors.”
