The Yanks had complained – more like dressing us down, frankly! – that we were getting too chummy with China – especially after the coalition APNU/AFC govt signed-on to that country’s Belt and Road Initiative (B&RI). America’s made no secret it considers China the major threat to its NUMERO UNO position in the world. Not militarily, where China still has quite a ways to go but economically where the Yanks have already been practically pipped. So it ain’t surprising that Uncle Sam looks askance at countries (Belt) tightening ties with China – especially in this hemisphere where its 200-year-old Monroe Doctrine claims first dibs!!
So we had the new CJIA; several highways; the Demerara Bridge; and so on – all being built with Chinese financing. They insisted their B&RI lending has “Chinese Characteristics”. Meaning, \ they say, having been at the receiving end of western “loans and aid” – from institutions like the IMF and World Bank -like the rest of the developing world, they know where the shoe pinches. And they strive to remove those pinches. The first thing they do is to declare right up front that all of their loans would be on “concessional” terms and without too many questions asked!!
Now that’s quite a commitment – since with the western Breton Woods institutions to get concessions on interests or default penalties etc you gotta stand on your head and wring your ears while accepting “conditionalities”. Pretty much tantamount to sacrificing your firstborn!! Now the west didn’t take all of this sitting down – especially since the Chinese was doling out THEIR funds – US$trillions which they’d paid China for becoming their workshop!! China was outcompeting with them for influence with their own money!! So they pushed the line that Chinese loans were too much of a good thing!! The catch was the projects weren’t viable and on defaulting, the Chinese would walk in and take over the infrastructure!! Sounded reasonable – save that there weren’t that many projects the Chinese actually took over!!
Well, after having been pulled up by the Yanks, two years our government signed a US US EXIMBANK MOU for US$2B to finance infrastructure etc – obviously with US companies. In July 2023, they applied for a US$660M loan to help finance the Wales Gas-to-Shore power generation plant – for which they’d already signed a contract with an American firm. Well after two years during which the US EXIMBANK consultants did their “assessments” and “analyses”- etc. with on-site inspections then US congressional approval, the Board FINALLY granted a US$526M loan at 4% interest payable over 15 years. Meanwhile, our govt’s already sunk US$100M in the project!!
By now the Chinese would’ve financed three generating plants!! America gotta do better to compete!!
…to development
When your Eyewitness was in school one of the first thing his economics teacher pointed out was the difference between “growth” and “development”. Growth, she intoned, was about the economy – which includes building bridges, highways, factories and stuff. And alphabet soup concoctions like GNP and GDP and so on describe it. On the other hand, development refers to people! So all that growth – which could be negative, mind you, like during the Burnham years! – could still take some time to improve people’s lives.
As such, development iain’t like instant coffee where you just heat up the water, throw in the coffee, stir and bingo!! So the government’s doing itself a disservice by insisting we’re experiencing “development” when most folks are still struggling to survive. What makes it tougher for “development” is when the demanded work skills and culture -like working three shifts and weekends! – lag. They became barriers to growth producing development.
So let’s tell it like it is – we gotta bear strain with growth but better (development) days are comin’!!
