President Dr Mohamed Irfaan Ali has announced a raft of measures aimed at increasing Guyanese participation across key sectors of the economy.
Speaking at the Local Content Summit Networking Reception at the Four Points by Sheraton on Tuesday evening, President Ali said the government is looking beyond oil and gas to embed local content principles into the broader evolution of the national economy.
“We are now moving into an era where we want local content to be structured in the everyday evolution of our economy,” he told those gathered for the networking reception.
“The coming weeks will be very exciting for local content and local participation in large-scale transformative projects,” he said.
President Ali announced that when launched, the Junior Stock Exchange will allow local businesses and individuals to trade shares and invest, especially in the gold sector, with one major developer promising to reserve shares for local participants.
He also announced that legislation for the Guyana Development Bank will be laid in Parliament within days. The bank, while primarily targeting small and micro enterprises, will also work to build clusters of businesses to capitalise on emerging economic opportunities.
A Diaspora Bond offering fixed rates of return is also in the pipeline, designed to raise investment capital for large-scale infrastructure projects that help drive national development.
On the energy front, President Ali reaffirmed plans to pursue a gas-to-energy project in the Wales Development Zone with significant local participation.
He highlighted the fertiliser plant as one such project, which will be open to investment by individual Guyanese and businesses at fixed rates of return.
A second project, a gas bottling and distribution plant, has been proposed, focusing on high local participation.
President Ali highlighted upcoming data centres in Wales that will involve local and regional participation from the beginning.
Looking regionally, the President said Guyana’s growing financial sophistication now positions it to negotiate business opportunities for local companies in Barbados, Grenada, Antigua and other Caribbean islands.
On the local content framework itself, President Ali directed the Ministry of Natural Resources to bring recommendations to the Cabinet on expanding the list of qualifying services, noting that financial services and insurance have attracted strong interest for increased local procurement.
“We are entering into an exciting period of the transformation,” President Ali said.
He said Guyana is now better positioned to identify niche areas and align with international investors in ways that benefit local businesses.