The Guyana Manufacturing and Services Association (GMSA) is calling for a “critical” evaluation to be undertaken to ascertain whether the granting of concessions by the government and the Guyana Office for Investment (GO-INVEST) to foreign-based companies will place local businesses at a disadvantage as it relates to competition.
The association, in a release today, said that local manufacturers continue to face the hardship of being unable to enjoy the same benefits as foreigners entering the country primarily to maximize the benefits associated with the new oil and gas industry.
“For this reason, the GMSA would like that emphasis should be placed on the need to derive more benefits from Guyana’s natural resources. It is therefore imperative for policymakers to include robust provisions in our local content policy to ensure the full maximization of local resources across Guyana,” GMSA stated.
The GMSA said that it “strongly” recommend that the objective of local content policy should revolve around definitive short-term benefits of natural resource extraction into long-term local economic development outcomes through capacity building, institutional strengthening via strategic policy intervention to promote domestic economic linkages, creation of employment and the participation of local Small and Medium-scaled Enterprises (SMEs) in the value chain through the supply of goods and services to the sector.
“To date, we have observed that there are no dedicated monitoring and evaluation mechanisms and/or institutions empowered with regulatory authority and autonomy to ensure the implementation of local content policy in Guyana. As such, the GMSA believes that an independent Commission should be an obvious body to remedy this anomaly,” the authority noted.
The GMSA “politely” recommended that the government should take a hard look at the Ghanaian model of Local Content Legislation, and its accompanying procedures and institutions.
“In order to ensure that the intended objectives of National Development is realized via a pertinent and realistic Local Content Policy in operation, we wish to politely recommend to the Government of Guyana to take a hard look at the Ghanian model of Local Content Legislation, and its accompanying procedures and institutions,” the GMSA noted.
