Govt engaging high-level investors on major transformative projects – President Ali

…deepwater harbour, Brazil road link on agenda

Since entering office, the President Dr Irfaan Ali-led Government has been engaging investors who are interested in investing money in Guyana.
On Wednesday, President Ali met with another investor as Government seeks to pursue major transformative projects. This was revealed when President Ali sat down on Wednesday for an interview with journalist Gordon Moseley, wherein the President said investors he had met were interested in housing and hotel development, as well as in investment opportunities in the sugar industry. In fact, Ali revealed that the People’s Progressive Party’s (PPP) vision for Guyana is stimulating regional and international interest, including from Brazilian investors whom he said are scheduled to visit Guyana next month to discuss a deep-water harbour project and a road linking Guyana to Brazil.

“I met with a major regional investor who has keen interest in all these areas of investment…we have a very high-level visit will take place sometime next month with Brazil. And in that visit, uppermost on the agenda will be the deep-water harbour and the road connection to Brazil. These are all part of the transformational investments that are on the cards. We’ll be meeting with investors regionally, internationally, and even locally,” Ali explained.
The Head of State also spoke of his vision of the Government partnering with the private sector to create employment in the Wales sugar belt, and tap into the human resource potential of the community – a community that was devastated by the former A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC) decision to close the Wales estate. This, he said, will be achieved through the Wales Development Authority.
“One of the things we’re hoping to achieve with the Wales Development Authority is to create a major manufacturing, employment- generation hub, through business development initiatives, business incubators that will not only take up the unemployment that took place after the closure of the estates, but would create new opportunities,” Ali said, adding cryptically that Guyana will start seeing the fruits of these discussions as early as in six weeks.
The PPP has had, for some time, an interest in building a deep-water harbour in Guyana, a project with the potential to not only create thousands of jobs, but also lower shipping and import costs and turn Guyana into a transshipment hub.
Canada-based company CGX Energy has also had some interest in constructing a deep-water harbour, and in fact advertised last year for contractors to construct one in Berbice, but that project went nowhere.
Discussions between Guyana and Brazil on a deep-water harbour and the upgrade of the Linden-Lethem road date back to the PPP government. The Inter-American Development Bank even undertook to conduct a study on the road link and the deep-water harbour, through a Technical Cooperation Agreement. And Public Works Minister Juan Edghill recently announced that work on the road link can start as early as next year.
The Linden-Lethem road, a key link between Guyana and Brazil with the potential to boost trade, is at present little more than an unsurfaced trail that deteriorates in rainfall.
The United Kingdom, through its United Kingdom Caribbean Infrastructure Partnership Fund (UKCIF) programme, will be providing funding for the first phase of the road: from Linden to Mabura Hill, as well as a crossing at Kurupukari.
The IKCIF has in fact allocated a total of £53.2 million to Guyana to fund several projects, including the road. With the 2018 no-confidence motion and the former Government’s delay in calling elections, however, these developmental projects were put on pause until now. (G3)