Last year, more than 2,000 streets were reconstructed. This year, another 2,000 streets have either been, or will be, reconstructed. This is happening in every village in every region. In all the municipalities, most of the streets and roads have been repaired and reconstructed. In Mabaruma (Region 1), Anna Regina (Region 2), Georgetown (Region 4), Rose Hall, New Amsterdam, Corriverton (Region 6), Bartica (Region 7), Mahdia (Region 8), Lethem (Region 9) and Linden (Region 10), almost all streets and roads have been redone.
The East Berbice, the West Berbice, East Coast Demerara, East Bank Demerara, West Demerara highways are being transformed into 4-lane roads. New roads going around Georgetown and directly linking the East Coast to the East Bank are being constructed, and some have been completed. The Linden Highway, the road to Lethem, linking Georgetown to Brazil, are underway. The whole country is being linked up by roads, some already underway. Who benefits from such an aggressive roads programme? The answer is not blowing in the wind, my friends. It is all of us, no matter where we live.
A new Demerara River bridge has started. There will be a new Berbice River bridge, a new bridge linking Guyana to Suriname, a new bridge connecting Wismar to Mackenzie, and linking Georgetown to Lethem. Hundreds of bridges are being constructed to create quick, safe travel through the hinterland. Who benefits? We all know; it is each of us.
A new specialist pediatric and maternal hospital is presently under construction in Ogle to meet American and European standards, at a cost of more than $US161M, equipped to perform surgeries and provide services that presently people must go overseas for. This new hospital will include MRI and CT with technology not yet available anywhere in CARICOM. Six new Regional Hospitals are presently under construction – at #75, Bath, Enmore, Diamond, De Kendren, and Lima/Anna Regina – that will have modern operating rooms and CT, at a cost of $US180M. Design work has started for four new regional hospitals in Moruca, Kamarang, Kato and Lethem. These hospitals will have a minimum of eight operating rooms, and each of these hospitals will have CTs. Linden Hospital is being upgraded. A new New Amsterdam Hospital at a cost of more than US$160M, with cardiac (heart) surgery capability, is being constructed. A new Georgetown Hospital will soon start construction, which will likely be the biggest ever investment in CARICOM’s history. Who benefits? Does anyone really need me to tell them it is all of us?
This is merely a passing glimpse of the robust development taking place in Guyana. None of this would have happened had Guyana’s economy not become the fastest growing economy in the world for three years in a row now, and projected to maintain that status in 2024. The reason the economy has been blazing ahead is because of OIL & GAS. Thus, agriculture is benefiting tremendously; manufacturing has been catalyzed, new service industries, with new hotels and hospitality businesses, are blooming; a new ICT industry is taking off. But we also have added a carbon credit revenue stream. And no country in CARICOM has attracted more foreign direct investment than Guyana since 2020. A country in which a one million US dollar investment was a big deal in the early 1990s is now attracting billions of dollars in FDI.
As bad as the 2016 OIL Deal was, Guyana is developing by leaps and bounds, and all of us are benefitting, no one more than KN and the sycophants who call every day to leave the oil in the ground. The small group every single day insult our intelligence, insisting that only a few people in Guyana benefit, while they make a business out of shouting out for a new deal. For anyone to say that everyone does not benefit from the economic trajectory that has been propelled by the OIL & GAS industry, they are dishonest and playing the fool.
No ambiguity, the EXXON PSA was a bad deal when it was signed in 2016. It remains a bad deal today. Guyana is not against renegotiation, but who thinks EXXON will agree? Rather than moaning and groaning, the PPP is trying its best to make the most out of a bad deal. The PPP Government, from the first moment it discovered what the Granger/APNU/AFC (PNC) Government had signed, condemned the contract. The PPP, in opposition and now in government, reiterated many times that the deal, as signed in 2016, is a bad deal. There is unanimity on this matter. The PNC/AFC and their main players, such as Patterson, Trotman, Ramjattan and others, today have joined in condemning the 2016 EXXON contract. Why do you think they hid the contract for two years after they signed it?
President Irfaan Ali, VP Bharrat Jagdeo, and the PPP Government have done the right thing in the interest of Guyana. Let us use our OIL now to transform Guyana. Those who today moan and groan and have a temper tantrum each and every day were generally quiet. They and the PNC (APNU/AFC) only decided that the contract was a terrible one after August 2, 2020. They are morbidly afraid that the development taking place today is resulting in people uniting under a single banner – ONE GUYANA. They are traumatized that there is no way they can stop the people uniting behind the PPP Government. They try their best to find any and whatever new reason to demand renegotiation of the contract, and talk about leaving the oil in the ground until we do so. Let them talk. While they waste their time, Guyana is ensuring our OIL wealth makes Guyana a paradise.
