Over 50 stakeholders from the private and public sectors and international energy companies (IECs) will participate in a three-day Energy Local Content Capacity Building workshop next month.
The sessions will be held from Tuesday, February 7, to Thursday, February 9, at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre, Two Mile Hill, St. Michael, from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., each day.
Minister of Energy and Business, Senator Lisa Cummins, will deliver the feature address during the opening ceremony.
The Barbados Energy Local Content Development Project is aimed at gradually increasing access to, and participation of local vendors and businesses in the energy industry.
The sessions will provide the platform for locals to share in the local content experiences of suppliers in Trinidad and Tobago to help them to understand and deal with the challenges for a successful outcome, especially in building local capacity, to meet local content targets, while becoming an internationally competitive value chain.
During the forum, there will be consultations between local suppliers of goods and services, manufacturers, IECs, other project owners, and major contractors.
An opportunity also exists for local content knowledge-sharing with suppliers in Trinidad, which would lead to meeting local targets and becoming more internationally competitive.
In explaining the rationale for the workshop, Economist in the Ministry of Energy and Business, Alton Best, stated: “The forum provides local suppliers with the understanding of the procurement and bidding processes, as well as addresses local supplier capacity gaps identified to date, including those discussed at the Plenary Stakeholders workshop, the one-on-one sessions, and the Share Fair.”
He continued: “It will also help local suppliers enhance their ability to address the needs of the IECs, fulfil local content requirements and targets that will be set by the Local Content Unit, and be ready for the implementation of the Financial Technical Assistance Programme.”
Mr. Best added that apart from information shared during previous workshops, it was time to position potential and existing clients, suppliers and service providers to enhance the services offered by players in the sector.
The Economist expressed optimism that at the end of the workshop, all stakeholders would have a better understanding of the “different segments of the industry, value chain, exploring procurement and supply chain opportunities as well as the bidding process”, to help with their understanding of procurement practices within the industry from requisition to contract close out.
Over the past few months, officials in the Ministry of Energy and Business and consultants involved in the one-year Barbados Energy Local Content Development Project have been working to identify any gaps in the emerging offshore oil and gas, and renewable energy sectors here, and to ascertain what systems should be put in place to address them.