{"id":32615,"date":"2026-10-19T18:41:14","date_gmt":"2026-10-19T22:41:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/?p=32615"},"modified":"2026-10-19T18:41:14","modified_gmt":"2026-10-19T22:41:14","slug":"wtc-trade-and-investment-conference-opens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wtc-trade-and-investment-conference-opens\/","title":{"rendered":"WTC Trade and Investment Conference Opens\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"fb-root\"><\/div>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8211;\u00a0<strong>W<\/strong><strong>ith Call for Stronger Partnership and Competitiveness <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">-by Celestine Chacon<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Minister of Natural Resources, Vickram Bharrat is urging stronger partnerships between government, foreign investors and Guyana\u2019s private sector to ensure that the benefits of the country\u2019s growing oil and gas industry reach ordinary Guyanese.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He made the call today,&nbsp;while addressing the opening of the World Trade Center&nbsp;-Georgetown International Trade and Investment Conference.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"684\" src=\"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/image-81-1024x684.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-32616\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/image-81-1024x684.png 1024w, https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/image-81-300x201.png 300w, https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/image-81-768x513.png 768w, https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/image-81.png 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">WTC Trade and Investment Conference Opens\u00a0<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Minister&nbsp;Bharrat pointed to&nbsp;Guyana\u2019s oil production&nbsp;which&nbsp;has increased from a mere 80-thousand barrels per day in 2020 to more than 900-thousand barrels per day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He noted, however, that the country\u2019s achievements must also be measured by the number of Guyanese employed in the sector and the opportunities created for local businesses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe can easily say we are one of the fastest growing economy in the world. But then the ordinary man out there would say, how am I benefiting from it? How am I going to benefit from it? Am I part of what is happening today?\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"771\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/image-82-771x1024.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-32617\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/image-82-771x1024.png 771w, https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/image-82-226x300.png 226w, https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/image-82-768x1020.png 768w, https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/image-82.png 813w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 771px) 100vw, 771px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Minister of Natural Resources, Vickram Bharrat<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Bharrat reported that approximately seven thousand Guyanese are employed in the oil and gas industry, while some 1,200 local businesses provide goods and services to the sector.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He&nbsp;pointed to farmers supplying&nbsp;produce for offshore operationsand credit the Local Content Act with helping Guyanese businesses gain access to the sector.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He, however,&nbsp;stressed that local companies must provide quality goods and services at competitive prices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201c<strong>The local content legislation was never designed to inculcate or encourage mediocrity in\u00a0terms of the provision of goods and services at exorbitant prices. Rather, we say to our local<\/strong> <strong>private sector, be competitive.<\/strong> <strong>Be competitive not only locally, but regionally and internationally, both in quality and price<\/strong>,\u201d he urged. <br>The minister also encouraged foreign investors to&nbsp;look beyond oil and gas, and see the potential of other sectors&nbsp;including agriculture, mining, forestry, construction and manufacturing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The World Trade Center Georgetown International Trade and Investment Conference runs from October 19 to 23, marking the first anniversary of the centre\u2019s official opening.<\/p>\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-post-featured-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1200\" height=\"802\" src=\"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/image-81.png\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" style=\"object-fit:cover;\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/image-81.png 1200w, https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/image-81-300x201.png 300w, https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/image-81-1024x684.png 1024w, https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/image-81-768x513.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\" \/><\/figure>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8211;\u00a0With Call for Stronger Partnership and Competitiveness -by Celestine Chacon Minister of Natural Resources, Vickram Bharrat is urging stronger partnerships between government, foreign investors and Guyana\u2019s private sector to ensure&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":32616,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[361,536,350,428],"tags":[488,949,448,412,405,1075,1321],"class_list":["post-32615","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business-and-economy","category-finance","category-news","category-oil-gas","tag-488","tag-investment","tag-ncn","tag-ncn-guyana","tag-ncn-news","tag-trade","tag-world-trade-center"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32615","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32615"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32615\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32618,"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32615\/revisions\/32618"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32616"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32615"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32615"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32615"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}