The state-run Department of Public Information (DPI) reported on Saturday July 20th that “dozens of Guyanese companies” had already registered for the Inaugural Diaspora Job Fair, a part of a wider official undertaking designed to attract skills that are required to fill ‘positions’ needed to plug important gaps that continue to open against the backdrop of the country’s petro-driven effort to build a modern economy.
A media release issued by the DPI reports that “dozens of Guyanese companies” had already registered for the event scheduled to take place on Saturday July 27th at the New York LaGuardia Airport Marriott Hotel. The event is being staged against the backdrop of an ongoing exercise by the Government of Guyana to recruit to the country skills that are consistent with the government’s envisaged development trajectory of the country.
At the state level, job openings are likely to be available in areas that have a bearing on development-related jobs including those linked to disciplines that can support the efficient administration of the oil and gas industry, among others. The disclosure that overseas-based Guyanese business entities will participate in the event keeps open the issue of the extent to which would-be investors are likely to return to Guyana to oversee their investments.
Disclosures of Guyana’s ‘world class’ oil discoveries, dating back to 2015, have painted an altogether different picture of the country’s development trajectory and it has become clear that the country’s envisaged expansion curve is unlikely to be realized in the face of a patently deficient skills inventory.
While there is no telling what the response will be to next weekend’s event, potential investors with an interest in doing business in Guyana will presumably be keen to be briefed by local state officials who will be in New York for the event, particularly with a view to determining the enticements associated with doing business in Guyana.
