As Guyana continues to prepare itself for the oil and gas sector, the Government has called on US multinational, ExxonMobil to help the country build capacity in certain areas.
Specifically making this call today was Minister of State, Joseph Harmon.
He was at the time, conducting a meeting with Exxon’s Executive Vice-President, Mr. Mike Cousins and Country Manager, Mr. Rod Henson at the Ministry of the Presidency.
Harmon told the team that the Government is looking to build and strengthen its capacity, particularly in the technical areas, which will see many more Guyanese involved in the industry. Minister Harmon told the visiting team that the Government would welcome support and assistance to make this a reality.
The Minister said, “In the oil and gas sector, we want to look at the technical skills that can be absorbed. It is something we are paying attention to as a Government. We are going to focus on our technical institutes and restructure them. We need to re-equip them and expand them so that we can get back young people into the workforce and we would like assistance in this area.”
He added, “We currently have about 3,770 persons in the various technical institutes and it is our intention to double or triple that number. We need to have about 10,000 young people enrolled in technical institutes. We have to ensure that our young people are prepared and can enjoy a better life.”
The State Minister then reiterated that the Government is looking forward to continued support from ExxonMobil but along the aforementioned lines.
