Over 70 stakeholders from the private and public sectors, as well as international energy companies, are expected to participate in the upcoming three-day Barbados Energy Local Content Workshop and Share Fair.
The event will be held at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre, from Monday, September 26, to Wednesday, September 28. Minister of Energy and Business, Kerrie Symmonds, will deliver the feature address during the opening ceremony.
Economist in the Ministry of Energy and Business, Alton Best, speaking ahead of the event, said valuable information, which was recently gathered, would be shared during the workshop with the international energy companies, local suppliers and the energy industry.
“The data will also be used to address the needs of the international energy companies, both current and potential,” he explained.
The Share Fair, which is a business development event that focuses on promoting early engagement between suppliers and potential clients, will be held on Tuesday and Wednesday, from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Members of the public are invited to tour the various booths on display and interact with the participants.
Underscoring the importance of the fair, Mr. Best continued: “It provides an opportunity which otherwise will not exist for clients, project owners and their major contractors to share information with suppliers. It will also provide suppliers with an invaluable opportunity to understand the needs of international energy companies and other clients, and prepare for these when the opportunities become live….
“It is expected that at the end of the Share Fair, project owners, sponsors and their major contractors will have a better knowledge of the energy industry supply chain in Barbados, the capabilities of local suppliers here, as well as the business sectors and markets they cover. This interaction will also make it easier for them to get in direct contact with each other when needed, as well as match them with foreign contractors who are looking for local suppliers to work with.”
Over the past few months, officials of the Ministry of Energy and Business and the Commonwealth Secretariat’s consultants for the one-year Barbados Energy Local Content Development Project, have been fervently working to identify any gaps in the emerging offshore oil and gas, and renewable energy sectors here, and ascertain what systems should be put in place to address them.
The Barbados Energy Local Content Development Project is aimed at progressively increasing access to, and participation of local vendors and businesses in the energy industry value chain.