As part of its focus on meeting the requirements of its overseas-based clients, the recently launched Guyana Logistics and Support Services (GLASS), will be seeking to source the skills required to meet the needs of investors, Director of the entity Romona Van Sluytman told Stabroek Business in an interview last week.
Van Sluytman said that in order to meet the requirements of its clients, GLASS had already been required to resort to recruiting skills from outside Guyana. She pointed out that the company would be anxious to play a role in providing jobs for Guyanese, adding that the current investment climate offered an incentive for Guyanese to pursue training in areas where skills are needed.
At last week’s launch ceremony, GLASS presented itself as a one-stop shop that can satisfy all of the logistics and support needs of potential investors.
The advent of GLASS can be viewed by both local and foreign investors as, perhaps, a timely development, given complaints of official red tape and road blocks. Managing Director John Lewis, a one-time Chief Executive Officer of the Berbice Mining Enterprise said in his launch address that the company was “well aware of the current operational and compliance difficulties within the sectors in which we operate”. He said the company intended to become “extra creative and aggressive” in its “methods and implementation ideas.”
Van Sluytman told Stabroek Business that GLASS had already been working on behalf of clients in the energy and minerals industries pointing out that the company was equipped to undertake corporate legal services, expedite the processing of documentation and licensing, brokerage services, logistics and procurement among other things. “Our aim is to walk our client through the system,” she said.
In his address at last week’s launch, Lewis disclosed that GLASS was equipped to meet “any and all service needs of the gold mining industry including labour services, logistical support, brokerage services” and other services.
Meanwhile, Lewis disclosed that the company’s focus on utilizing local labour had led to the decision to “provide some free basic training in occupational safety and health to persons who may be eligible to work in the oil or gas and/or mining sector but who may be disqualified because of safety certification. Addi-tionally, Lewis said, GLASS will be working with the University of Guyana “to allow graduates and prospective graduates an opportunity to expand their job prospects by registering with our job bank.”
