Communications Director of the International Energy Conference and Expo 2022 Alex Graham has made clear that the panellists at the recently hosted were chosen based on “what expertise they bought on what subjects were on the table at the particular time” and not on “the basis of which group they belong to.”
The Communications Director made this comment while responding to concerns expressed by civil society organisation Article 13 during a media briefing on Thursday.
Article 13 recently issued a press statement expressing concern about the absence of the Parliamentary Opposition from the list of speakers.
Mr Graham also clarified that he had no role in “putting the programme together”.
Speaking specifically on an invitation to Shadow Minister of Natural Resources David Patterson to speak Graham said
“once you can prove to me that he has a specialty in the area of any one of these things that were discussed then I’ll make sure our programme people know we have an expert here that we can invite next time.”
He further pointed out that several Opposition Members of Parliament did register to attend the conference when they claimed they were not invited.
According to Mr Graham, the conference was not hosted for political games but to attract investment opportunities for Guyanese.
The International Energy Conference and Expo were held from February 15th - 18th under the theme “Charting a Sustainable Future.” The next conference is slated for February 14th - 17th, 2023.
