Economic landscape of Reg 3 to be transformed in 2025 – Pres Ali

– says Gov’t pumped over $40B in infrastructure, education & housing since 2020

– additional 15,000 house lots to become available

Come 2025, the economic landscape of Region Three (Essequibo Island- West Demerara) will be transformed as the Guyana Government forges ahead with plans to inject major investments into the region.
This is according to President Dr Irfaan Ali who explained that since assuming office in August 2020, his Government has expended over $40 billion to uplift the livelihoods of Guyanese residing in that region.
In 2024 alone, the sum of $6 billion was spent on the construction and rehabilitation of new schools in Canal Number One, Bagotstown, Parfaite Harmonie, Nismes and Vreed-en-Hoop.
Additionally, $400 million was provided in school supply vouchers for teachers, $390 million was spent on textbooks for learners in the region and $3.4 billion returned to the pockets of the children in the region by way of the “Because We Care” cash grant.
Further, to enhance the region’s infrastructure, the Government is spending $31 billion on community roads.
The Head of State who was at the time addressing a community meeting at his residence on Monday, disclosed that residents could look forward to seeing another 15,000 house lots being allocated in various sections of the region.
He told the gathering that no obstacle will stop the economic growth of the Essequibo Island- West Demerara region in 2025.
“When we look at the growth rate and do the comparative analysis of the growth rate here and in other regions you will see the speed in which the region is growing… we must not allow anyone to stop this mission, in 2025 we must go and destroy every attempt to stop this mission, this region especially,” Dr Ali said.
According to President Ali, massive opportunities will unlock in the Region next year, especially when the new port and agro-processing facilities are operational.
On this point, he emphasised that the Government’s strategic investments raised the competitiveness of the West Side, noting that very soon living in Region Three will be no different than living on the Coastland.
“When you drive along the West Side ports, what do you see? Competition with the ports on the East Side, and the Georgetown ports. We have new ports at Wales, La Grange, Vreed en Hoop, [and] Versailles. When you add up the private investments in those ports alone, it is more than US$700 million,” the president pointed out.

Ferry
The new regional ferry service which is being facilitated through a joint venture between the Governments of Guyana, Barbados, and Trinidad and Tobago will be operated out of Parika, Region Three (Essequibo Islands-West Demerara) when it comes on stream.
The ferry is part of an effort to produce more of the food and meet the regional demand for commodities across the Caribbean Community (CARICOM).
According to President Ali, the production of ground provisions, vegetables, and fruits is set to increase in Region Three communities such as Bonasika Creek, therefore it is viable to operate the ferry out of the major port.
“The good thing about here is that we can export directly to CARICOM from here, you don’t need to transport to Georgetown and all these places. That is why we are pushing so hard to get the regional ferry because the regional ferry will operate out of Parika so that we can have all of these productions from all of these islands (in the Essequibo River) integrated into the regional market,” the Guyanese Head of State said.

New processing facility
Meanwhile, to further complement the production of food when the ferry comes on stream, he announced that a new processing facility will be developed in Bonasika Creek so that farmers can tap into a more lucrative market.
According to statistics provided by the Agriculture Ministry, farmers in Bonasika have produced a total of 50 tonnes of bananas, 200 pounds of pumpkin, and 120 tonnes of cassava and other provisions for this year so far. Additionally, more than 240,000 pounds of ginger have been produced.
The President explained that the processing facility coupled with the regional ferry service will see Guyana being able to cut the food import bill by 25 percent by 2025.
“You are making use of the investments we are making and we’re proud of this but we have to triple this production… and we are going to support you tripling this production…We are going to build, in this area, a processing facility so we can take the fresh ginger, dry it, and crush it so we can extend the storage time from weeks to months and access higher value markets with the ginger,” President Ali back in May.