Timothy Tucker elected the new President of GCCI

– says local content, building capacity to remain priorities

Timothy Tucker of Rid-O-Pes, formerly Senior Vice Chair of the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI), has now taken up the position of President of the organization.
According to a statement from the Chamber, Tucker and his fellow executive management committee members were elected at the first statutory meeting on Tuesday, for a one-year term. Taking Tucker’s vacancy as Senior Vice President was Gerald Gouveia Jr. of Roraima Airways.
Kester Hutson of Dapper Technology Incorporated was elected Junior Vice President, while Gavin Ramsoondar of Zarc Properties Incorporated was elected Treasurer and Shaleeza Shaw of Demerara Bank Limited was elected Secretary.
GCCI elected a 21-member council last week, also serving a one-year term. Besides the executive members, the council includes Anjie Lambert of Project Development Consultancy, Dr Vishnu Doerga of ActionInvest Caribbean and Dr Rosh Khan of Social Rank Media.
Also on the council are Anita Ramprasad of MACORP, Briony Tiwarie of BK Supermix. Komal Ramnauth of Kojack Marketing Agency, Keon Howard of Winedaysgy, Candelle Bostwick of Guyana Global Compliance Service, Navin Prashad of Brokers and Insurance Advisors AS and Shaam Outar of A&S Enterprise.
The council also includes Samuel Arjoon of Guyana Beverages, Cassandra Jaikaran of Ocean Air Logistics, Sean Ramrattan of RRT Enterprise, Rayad Boyce of Sonic Business Service, Carlos Mendonca-Rodrigues of Ricks and Sari and Pradeep Ramoutar of Western Logistics Guyana.
GCCI, under the leadership of former President Nicholas Boyer, had taken a prominent position last year in the fight for democracy. Boyer had even written a letter to former President David Granger, as the wait for election results continued to unfold.
In an invited comment, the new Chamber President said the GCCI will take a fresh look at local content and capacity for construction, in light of the growing oil and gas industry in Guyana that began oil production in 2019.
“GCCI is a business support organization on Private Sector development and promotion. We will focus on local content and capacity building as a stepping stone to achieving an international Private Sector, ”said Tucker.
Guyana is expected to significantly increase oil production in the coming years. US oil giant ExxonMobil has estimated that there are eight billion barrels of recoverable reserves in the Stabroek Block.
The Payara project, which Exxon hopes to start in 2023, is expected to produce 220,000 barrels of oil a day and contain up to 45 wells including production, water and gas injection wells.
Once all approvals are given, Payara will be Exxon’s third Field Development Plan (FDP) for approval. The first FDP approved by the Government of Guyana was Liza Phase One, while Liza Phase Two was expected to start in 2022.
From Phase One Liza, Guyana has received well over US $ 100 million in cargo lift and royalty payments. The Government has promised that money from the country’s oil resources will go towards developing modern infrastructure and ensuring that citizens benefit from better social services, such as education and healthcare.
President Dr Irfaan Ali has also been very vocal about Guyana’s Private Sector building its capacity and capitalizing on investment opportunities that accompany oil and gas production.