Playing on the global stage calls for professional, world-class posture.
We exhort our leaders that this nation now stands ready to become a global player. Our nation, comprising the Diaspora and the local population, spans the global village. And we are a literate, intelligent and accomplished people. We live peacefully and we strive with ambition and hard work.
So to see Guyana strut its strengths on the world stage brings a particular joy to the heart.
Last weekend in Canada, Minister of Natural Resources and the Environment, Robert Persaud, made quite an impressive impression on the global stage.
Toronto, Ontario hosted the world’s largest mining expo last weekend. And Guyana stood out as a rising star, magnificent, polished and glittering.
On Monday evening, a posh roomful of sophisticated ladies and gentlemen gathered at a glittering cocktail in glitzy downtown Toronto to celebrate and toast our nation’s imminent promotion to an oil producing land.
Persaud networked the room and openly entertained conversations with anyone, answering questions with great poise and professional know-how. His leadership in Toronto was outstanding in showcasing Guyana as a place where the world can look to for mining investment and wealth creation.
It was a special moment in our nation, especially as expectations run high that Berbice could soon become the newest oil find in the world.
With exquisite wine and expensive drinks flowing freely, and barely breathing room in the packed hall, glamorous business leaders exuded an excited expectation that wealth is to be had in Guyana.
The roomful of world-class business leaders flocked around the Guyana dream. It was a great moment to cherish.
Among the hundreds of glittering booths showcasing gold, diamond and other precious mineral mining outfits in the world, Guyana got significant representation, from several firms that play on the Toronto Stock Exchange, one of the busiest share-trading posts in the world today.
Investors and mining experts from all over the world flock to this mining expo to network, invest and explore opportunities. Guyana is coming into its own, joining Mexico, Argentina, Australia, Canada and a host of other countries as global players in the booming global mining industry.
Canada is the global leader in mining exploration. Not only does it have a mammoth local mining sector spread across its vast terrain, but it invests heavily in mining exploration around the world.
And Canada is the biggest player in Guyana’s mining industry.
Many of the local mining outfits are Canadian-Guyanese partnerships, including CGX in oil, and several in gold and other mineral. They trade on the Toronto Stock Exchange, attracting global investors.
To see this nation playing on the global stage is a joy to watch. The Guyana Dream becomes tangible, real. For so long we have lived the fantasy of our potential. We remain grossly poverty stricken, with rampant corruption across every area of life – state and private sector.
One wonders if we would ever achieve our Dream as a Guyanese nation. In Toronto last weekend, this writer saw that dream in living reality.
The Metro Toronto Convention Center is world famous for hosting global events of glamour and power, including G7 and G20 summits of the world’s most powerful heads-of-state.
For this mining expo, hosted by the globally powerful Prospectors and Developers Association Canada (PDAC), 30,000 people attended over four days, March 4-7, from 120 countries. And Guyana shone with outstanding excellence.
This columnist attended the convention last Sunday and Monday, and was amazed to see the global show of interest at the CGX cocktail event. CGX executives were on hand, along with Guyana mining executives, Minister Persaud and a host of interested investors.
Along with Canadian-Guyanese businessman, Malcolm Cho-Kee, this writer left in awe that Guyana was making such an amazing impact at a global forum in Canada.
The train ride through Toronto to the glamorous Convention Center is itself a nice experience. Walking through the skywalk into the Center, and into the bustling mining expo, one has the impression of Guyana as far, far away from such global glamour and professional, sophisticated development. So, seeing the well-decorated booths of the Guyana mining firms, and witnessing the country at virtual centre stage, was quite an eye-opening experience.
Our nation is on its way.
If only we could clean up the internal political mess that sees us not holding local government elections for nearly two decades, and free up the State media, and clean up our Capital City – both of garbage and destitute, poverty-stricken people – we would have a country making waves in the 21st century world.
The mining industry – exploring for oil, gold, bauxite, manganese and even uranium – promises to transform the economic fortunes of this land. Canada is doing a great job to lift us into the global forefront of this industry, despite Russian and Chinese interests here.
The Guyanese Diaspora plays a key role in these companies, investing through the Stock Markets in these companies being able to acquire the huge capital necessary for exploration and pre-production work.
It’s the first step in developing this country – to gather international investment.
The ultimate goal, of course, is to develop local communities like Port Kaituma and so on, where the world’s mining industry plays.
Minister Persaud focused his attention on this local aspect, even as he welcomed investments in Guyana’s mining sector. The Minister emphasized “social responsibility” as a key aspect of his job.
In the world of this 21st century, mining companies are learning to extract precious minerals, and thus create and nurture global wealth, with an eye on the environment and local communities.
In fact, the global players now talk openly about social responsibility.
Minister Persaud said Guyana takes this seriously, building the mining sector alongside preserving vast acreages of forests.
This kind of message resonates well in Canada, where the Omai project left a sour taste after failed civil suits in Canada that claimed environmental catastrophe at the Omai gold mining site.
Guyana’s 21st century role on the global mining stage will be one of social responsibility, the Minister promised.
