Come next Monday, President Irfaan Ali will be leading consultations on the local content policy which is still in a draft form. This was disclosed yesterday by Vice President, Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo during a press conference at the Arthur Chung Convention Centre.
Jagdeo told members of the media that the draft was done by the Energy Department which used as its premise, the report of the Local Content Advisory Panel that was commissioned last year by the Head of State. That report also draws on several rounds of consultations that were led by President of the Guyana Manufacturing Services Association (GMSA) Shyam Nokta. The panel that was appointed by the President to advise on the best provisions for the policy also included Advisor on Borders, Carl Greenidge; former Energy Minister for Trinidad and Tobago, Kevin Ramnarine; and TT Energy Strategist and Local Content Expert, Anthony Paul.
Once the consultation on the draft document is completed, Jagdeo said that another expert would be hired to incorporate the comments into one final document before submitting same to the National Assembly for debate.
He noted too that the draft policy which includes local content targets for companies to achieve following his input, would then be used to lay the groundwork for Guyana’s local content legislation.
Guyana Standard understands that the draft policy and the report of the Local Content Panel will be placed on the website of the Ministry of Natural Resources this week.
