Private Sector’s infrastructural investments welcome – Dr Singh

A shift in infrastructure – formerly viewed as a Government responsibility to now having injections from the Private Sector to fill existing gaps – has been welcomed by the Irfaan Ali-led administration, with expectations of more such moves taking place as the country develops.
Senior Minister in the Office of the President with Responsibility for Finance, Dr Ashni Singh, spoke with the Private Sector at a recent Inter-American Development Bank event, where he made this remark: “There was a time when we thought that public infrastructure was Government’s business. Governments and only Governments provide infrastructure. Today, if we look around the world, we have no shortage of examples of private market solutions to public infrastructural needs and gaps.

“We have companies that are rolling out major infrastructure projects, including in areas such as transport infrastructure. We have major port developments taking place, financed by private capital. There was a time when we thought schools and hospitals were Government business. We have private providers of educational services (and) health care services, because there is a market. And we welcome this,” Singh outlined.
Dr Singh delved into the prospects for private entities who fund such projects, and the spinoff in not just profits, but benefits for the common man in the form of employment and access to services. “That environment, policy and infrastructure we have always expected would be responded by the Private Sector with private investment, mobilization, and deployment of private capital for the purposes of viable investments, job creating and income generating.”
Right on the forefront of private investment is the Vreed-en-Hoop Shore Base Inc (VEHSI) – currently the largest Guyanese Private Sector investment in the oil and gas sector, and is expected to cost over US$300 million. According to the project directors, the support and encouragement given by the Government of Guyana have been reassuring, and augur well for additional investment and the future of Guyana.
Vreed-en-Hoop Shore Base Inc is a joint venture between NRG Holdings Inc — a 100 per cent Guyanese-owned consortium that is the majority shareholder – and Jan De Nul, an international maritime infrastructure company headquartered in Luxembourg.
The current shore base construction will see the first phase of 10 acres made operational by December 2023, with additional acreage delivered by the second quarter of 2024. The long-term vision of the project will eventually see the full Port of Vreed-en-Hoop completed with as many as 800 acres of port facilities.
CGX is also constructing a Deep-Water Port at the mouth of the Berbice River, that will not only support oil and gas, but the agriculture sector. Back in January, the company had said it had spent over US$22 million on the BDWP project thus far through its wholly-owned subsidiary, Grand 2 Canal Industrial Estates (GCIE). In November 2022, CGX reported that the cargo terminal aspect of the port was to commence in mid-2023, and operation of the oil and gas support base in late 2023, subject to construction schedules and supply chain accessibility.
A few months ago, the US$5 million Sheriff General Hospital was also commissioned at Leonora, West Coast Demerara (WCD), marking another major private investment in Guyana.