Gov’t presses Exxon for investment in youth training

Government yesterday met with visiting ExxonMobil Vice President, Mike Cousins and made a pitch for a partnership in improving technical and vocational skills of youth with the aim of lowering unemployment rates among the group, Minister of State Joseph Harmon says.

“It was an overall approach to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), I gave them some broad areas that I think we can look at going forward. Some of these had to do with the technical and vocational training for young people which can deal with a lot of the unemployment among the youth. This is partnering with technical and vocational schools throughout the country,” Minister of State Joseph Harmon told Stabroek News yesterday.

“They [ExxonMobil’s team] appeared to be very receptive to what we are talking and actually undertook to follow up this with the Ministry of Education,” he added.

The renegotiated Production Sharing Agreement signed with Exxon’s subsidiary in 2016 saw an increase in training funding from US$45,000 to US$300,000 per annum and a new allocation of US$300,000 for social and environmental programmes.

Guyana’s 2017-2020 Corporate Social Responsibility Framework focuses heavily on youth empowerment and skills building but it is unclear how plans in the document are being executed, how targets are set and achieved or who does the evaluation of works done.

The CSR framework was crafted under Minister of Natural Resources Raphael Trotman at a time when he was responsible for the energy sector. This year he announced that he was handing back responsibility for the sector to the President who he believes must be the one “to shape the vision for the country” as the oil and gas sector was too big. A Department of Energy has since been established and is currently in its personnel recruiting stages.

But Trotman had said that the crafting of the framework was done since his government believed that “a more streamlined approach to the execution of corporate social responsibility is necessary to ensure greater impact on the lives of community members.”

“This is particularly important in the context of Guyana’s new thrust towards sustainable management of its resources and the development of a green economy. This new economy seeks to ensure a reduction in environmental risks and damage from the work we do. The extractive industries therefore have a key role to play in the fulfillment of this vision, and this Corporate Social Responsibility Framework gives guidance on some of the avenues companies can tangibly make a difference in the experience of development for youth, women and, all Guyanese,” he added.

Yesterday, Harmon told the ExxonMobil delegation that as Guyana continues to prepare itself for the oil and gas sector, Government is looking to build and strengthen its capacity, particularly in the technical areas, which will see many more Guyanese involved in the industry and would welcome support and assistance to make this a reality.

Absorbed

“In the oil and gas sector, we want to

look at the technical skills that can be absorbed. It is something we are paying attention to as a Government. We are going to focus on our technical institutes and restructure them. It is an area in which we are going to focus heavily in the coming days. We need to re-equip them and expand them so that we can get back young people into the workforce and we would like assistance in this area. We currently have about 3,770 persons in the various technical institutes and it is our intention to double or triple that number. We need to have about 10,000 young people enrolled in technical institutes. We have to ensure that our young people are prepared and can enjoy a better life. We need to help them and we are looking forward to continuing that co-operation,” the Ministry of the Presidency quoted Harmon as saying.

Still in the area of CRS but dealing with environment matters, Harmon relayed Government’s appreciation for the cooperation that currently exists between the Civil Defence Commission (CDC) and ExxonMobil Guyana. However, he noted that there are various other environmental projects in which he would welcome the support of the company.

“We also discussed the environmental issues in relation to the Green State Development Strategy and how they can participate in that,” he said.

“I have seen the work done with the CDC through the company and I think we need to continue to strengthen these processes and redouble our efforts. Personally, I believe that Georgetown can do with some help in terms of our physical environment, to the extent where we can bring Georgetown back and to a pristine state. We need to recapture the clean-up spirit and emphasize and encourage solid waste management and such things,” he noted according to DPI.