By Jarryl BryanThe Trinidad and Tobago Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (TTEITI) held a workshop at the Arthur Chung Convention Centre yesterday as part of efforts to collaborate with the Government of Guyana with the latest advent of crude oil being discovered off Guyana’s Stabroek Block.Economist,Dr. Roger HoseinDuring the workshop Dr. Roger Hosein, a lecturer and researcher of energy trade at the University of West Indies (UWI), urged that the oil belongs to the people of Guyana and not politicians. In light of this, Dr. Hosein decried the fact that civil society is not more hands on and involved in keeping the administration in check.“I am not coming to you to recommend harsh measures. I am coming to tell you that the oil in the ground is not the politicians own.”“Civil society’s role extends throughout the economy,” Hosein said. “Like those in the Caribbean, civil society is a great watch dog, especially when billions of US dollars are at stake. We cannot rely on a government where we have an influence once every five years. Civil society can correct some of the gaps in between the five year period.”Hosein stated that the EITI would help add value to the process, with its measures bringing the process out into the open. He made it clear that if a company wanted to make huge profits out of its venture, but did not want a penny to go back into the economy, then civil society should have a great deal to say about that.“The government and the politicians, yes they are in power, but the power must not be so magnanimous during the five years. We have to challenge them on a continuous basis. The civil society movement in Guyana basically needs to become more aggressive. It has to move from dead to aggressive.”Minister of Natural Resources,
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Wholesale Cheap Jerseys China, spoke to the trend in the oil and gas sector during a recent seminar. Stressing a cautioned approach and its inherent benefits, Trotman also sought to remind the forum that managing an emerging sector such as oil,
Cheap Soccer Jerseys Free Shipping, requires careful planning.“Preparation for the development of a full-fledged Hydrocarbon sector will take many years and requires a strengthening of institutional frameworks not only within the natural resources sector but also in the spheres of business services, foreign affairs, the justice and education systems,
NFL Jerseys Wholesale, social protection, and the environment just to name a few,” Trotman had said.“An entire nation has to get on board together and with one plan of action. I ask aloud and rhetorically – will we allow our political differences to divide and diminish our potential once again?”He observed that as recent oil price fluctuations and its impact have shown, managing a new extractive industry is a major challenge for many of the governments in the developing world.He said that the past 30 years are replete with examples of Governments that have not adequately developed institutions and regulatory frameworks that allow for an effective functioning of the industry; “including the use of oil and gas revenues to finance policies that are economically conducive to both growth and poverty reduction, or to weather the storms of oil price swings.”According to Trotman, “Those that chose to run through the open door unmindful of the force behind it have paid a heavy price.” Time can be a friend or foe, he said, depending on “how we utilise it…Guyana will respect time and not rush it.”He noted a world energy demand growing and projected to be 37 per cent higher in 2035 with India and China accounting for half the growth while in the near future, projections of oil prices suggest an increase from today’s average of US$46 per barrel to an average of US$59 in 2016 and climbing.According to Trotman,
Cheap Jerseys Free Shipping, this fact declares that there is room and much benefit for Guyana to not only provide for its energy needs but also to join the energy provision market.He said, too, that it also raises a number of issues with which the country must treat responsibly such as embracing “a new world order that expects transparency in the management processes and equity in the sharing of natural resources as equally as it demands respect for the environment,
NFL Jerseys China, and a lessening of global warming and the movement towards the greening of the economy which is an inevitability whose time has come.”Trotman had also sought to assure that the development of the Hydrocarbon sector must be implemented on the basis of the country-specific political and socio-economic context.
