Dear Editor,
In an article in the Chronicle Newspaper dated November 12, 2022 and captioned, “Be ready for opportunities – President Ali tells business community” it was reported that the government said that “the government will continue to set the stage for investments …. But the onus is also on businesses to be prepared to take advantage of the opportunities that are provided”. I would suggest that the President have a serious talk with his Vice President, Bharrat Jagdeo who seems to be doing the very opposite.
In a video that was circulated, Jagdeo who is usually very fluent, responded in the same way when he was asked about SU. He lost his fluency. He said, “The refinery (Pause) we have received (pause) I see everyday people putting in (pause) and I believe some of these companies (pause) are (pause) you have a few serious companies and a lot of carpet bagging companies (pause) that have come here and say they can do refineries, they want an MOU from the government and they go and talk, I see one said they can do 10,000 jobs in Berbice, it’s all nonsense. A lot of it is doesn’t make sense so to sift this through to say we don’t want people to come every day to us. They have been coming.” This seems very condescending and even insulting. Is this the message this government would like to put out there?
Now, the Minister of Natural Resources indicated there were 10 proposals for the construction of a refinery. According to the Vice President they have, “few serious companies and a lot of carpet bagging companies”. My question to him is whether his government has taken these “serious proposal seriously”? Has he, as head of oil and gas or has the Minister of Natural Resources, written to the few “serious ones”? Were these companies advised to follow the standard protocols, that is, to present their projects to “GOINVEST” and then to move to obtain their environmental permit etc.? I must say that after I heard that companies are coming every day and asking for MOU etc., that that figure should be a lot more than 10 or the Vice President has made an erroneous statement. Only he can say why he expressed himself in that way.
The Vice President went on to say, “I see one said they can do 10,000 jobs in Berbice, it’s all nonsense.” I suppose he was referring to the press release by Romeo Cipriani, the President of DEPCO that was in the media a few days ago. Could the President say why his VP would want to introduce Mr. Cipriani to the Leader of the Opposition? Is this an attempt at inclusiveness? According to the press release, Romeo Cipriani is a Guyanese remigrant from the USA. He stated that he wanted to do something for Guyana, especially for Berbice, and that he has secured the finance for the construction of a refinery and the refinery would consist of four modules of 60,000 barrels per day (bpd). The press release says it would create about 3,000 jobs directly and 7,000 indirectly. I am thinking that this represent billions in USD investment. Should the President not meet him as he has met the Saudi Arabia and the other delegations?
Well, the Oil and gas expert Bharrat Jagdeo says, in what I can only see as a knee jerk response “this is nonsense”. He spoke of some policy of 30,000 (bpd) I do not know if this was ever communicated to the “serious proposers”, however I never heard of this before. Maybe the President can inform us when cabinet made such a decision. I seriously doubt such was ever discussed by Cabinet, however the President can speak on this. Was there any such policy discussed, made and was the public informed? Maybe someone, or even I would explain later why 30,000 does not make any sense. Maybe the 30,000 BPD is for a specific company. Maybe this would allow certain favoured investors to invest as it was in the Berbice Bridge and attempted in the Marriot.
The President went on to say, according to the article, that the private sector did not make use of the opportunities presented when the Saudi and the Korean delegations came here. He went on to say that his government has gone above and beyond to foster business development in Guyana. Well, for the President to accomplish this, he may have to muzzle his Vice President. The President continued that he would put together a team to assist businesses to prepare themselves so they can access finance from the banks. Well, the company claims to have secured the financing. I suggest the President apologise on behalf of the Vice President for saying this is ‘nonsense’ and call in the President of this company for discussions on the way forward. Berbice really needs development and Berbicians may not forgive and forget if this glorious opportunity is ignored because of the attitude of the Vice President.
In closing, I would like to point out that the President stated that the private sector has short-comings and he recognize they have to be assisted in preparing projects, yet the Minister of Natural Resources has questioned proposals to construct a 30,000 BPD refinery and the demand is a very complex and very costly document. I do not know why the private sector, which provides the money for the construction of a refinery, must prepare such detailed plans for a refinery and present it to the National Tender Board. I don’t even think they have the expertise to evaluate such. Maybe the Minister can explain why.
Sincerely,
Emron Bacchus
