Energy Head warns about unrealistic local content expectations ahead of Elections

As Guyana approaches General and Regional Elections, Head of the Energy Department; Dr. Mark Bynoe said the department is fully aware of all the unrealistic expectations as regards local content policy.

At the Guyana Manufacturing and Services Association Awards Presentation and Dinner held at the Pegasus Hotel on Wednesday night, Dr. Bynoe stated “the decision whether to give into such expectations and pressures is particularly relevant in our national elections when popular promises tend to overrule realistic outcomes.”

“One of the most difficult tasks that policy makers have to tackle is designing and setting local content goals at the right level for Guyana’s circumstances. However the task is made difficult because of the industrial capacity which is usually low and the socio economic expectation, often resulting in political pressure demanding quick success from local content measures,” Dr. Bynoe asserted.

“Persons are deceived in this way; hypocrisy and double speaks are tools they use to endorse manipulation of public ignorance. The Department of Energy will not toggle down that road.”

Dr. Bynoe said that the department has taken a “considered, if not popular approach” to properly assess and scrutinise the relevant barriers to local development in Guyana, and has therefore sought to design a fit-for-purpose Local Content Policy with necessary applicable measures to monitor and effects of such policy implementation”.

He further warned that the more unrealistic a goal and the more painful the penalty will be for not achieving it, the stronger the incentive will be among investors to get around that goal.

“The unrealistic goal is something that requires more energy, skills, talents, and time than you have available in order to achieve it, therefore investors will demand more money, such grants to attract and combine with capital; and will introduce the “stronger incentive” towards better performance,” Dr. Bynoe concluded.

During a prior engagement, the Energy Head had stated that the goal to have the local content policy by the end of the year remains. The third draft of the Local Content Policy was released earlier this year for consultation and comments by various organizations.

He then took the opportunity to update those present on the progress made with local content policy thus far. According to Dr. Bynoe, over 1700 Guyanese are employed in the oil industry, representing a 29% increase over the same period in 2018.

The pool of local vendors being utilised in the industry is expanding, he said, with 485 being used in the third quarter of the year and some 70 joint ventures established since the formation of the Centre for Local Business Development.