President, Dr Mohamed Irfaan Ali recently revealed his intention to facilitate the training of 2,000 young Guyanese to take up jobs in the area of nearshoring, which holds tremendous potential for trapping more value in country. Nearshoring is a practice where companies move either in part or whole, their business operations in a distant country to a nearby one.
Ali made the revelation while addressing a gathering at the Guyana Oil and Gas Energy Chamber’s Annual Awards and Induction Ceremonial Dinner on Friday evening.
The president identified a plethora of employment and training opportunities available to Guyanese and the diaspora within the oil and gas sector.
The head of state said the government will engage institutions to offer extensive training to an initial amount of 2,000 Guyanese.
“We’re going to put our money to back our policy. That is why we are going to go with a matching grant initiative with our development partners. In total, it will be about US$10 million,” President Ali told attendees.
Since ExxonMobil and its other consortium partners have proven instrumental in expanding nearshoring opportunities to countries around the world, President Ali noted that the government will work to advance talks to bring these opportunities to Guyanese.
“We’re going to train them at different skill levels for nearshoring jobs. We’re going to ensure they get the certification, the training. We’re going to invest in that for them, and then we’re going to go to ExxonMobil and say to them, ‘You’ll have to bring 2,000 of those jobs here for these 2, 000 young people we have trained and certified to take those nearshoring jobs,” he said.
He added that Guyana is in an optimum geographic location for many large-scale companies seeking opportunities for nearshoring.
“We’re looking at the big picture. We have to ensure our development partners give us all the possible opportunities that their company can give us here in Guyana. And if we can train 2,000 people, and they have the capacity through nearshoring jobs to take up those 2,000 persons, then they have a social responsibility to give those opportunities here in Guyana,” President Ali underscored.
The president reaffirmed that the administration will continue to advocate for increased opportunities and benefits for Guyanese.
