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Deep Water Harbour would have immense potential for Guyana – Minister Ali

Oct 04, 2012 News

The introduction of a Deep Water Harbour would have immense economic potential for Guyana, as according to Minister with responsibility for Trade, Industry and Commerce, Irfaan Ali, a number of other services and sectors will be linked to its operation.
The Minister was at the time addressing a gathering of overseas business delegates who attended a GuyExpo business networking forum last Friday.
The Deep Water Harbour, he explained, comes as part of Government’s plan to facilitate massive infrastructural upgrades. The plan will entail the completion of a road network between Linden and Lethem which will be linked to a Deep Water Harbour.
With such infrastructure in place, Ali said that it will cater to a lot of traffic from northern Brazil most of which is currently forced to navigate the Atlantic, taking in excess of seven days to reach Port.  Another four or five days are required to offload products, Ali revealed, pointing out that “if you come through Guyana you are talking about eight days only…so it reduces the time considerably. These are the potential areas that these projects are going to open-up”.
Guyana has over the years been exploring the construction of a Deep Water Harbour and had even collaborated with the Indian Government, where a feasibility study was conducted. That study had indicated the port should be built in the Berbice region, since the water has the necessary depth and the area is not congested.
Meetings were held with the Maritime Administration Department (MARAD), private terminal operators and shipping agencies to gather information for the study. In addition, aerial and site visits were carried out to collect information for further analysis. However, it was last July that China joined the Deep Water Harbour talks, with Zhongdong Tang, the Regional Director for the Americas for China Harbour Engineering Company Limited (CHEC), revealing that there have been some “verbal discussions” in this regard. However, he asserted that there has been no formal proposal to the Guyana Government as at the time of his visit.
Among other plans for infrastructural upgrades, Ali mentioned the construction of a new Demerara Harbour Bridge for which a feasibility study is currently ongoing. He hinted at the possibility of a high-rise bridge which would replace the decades-old floating bridge which currently caters to traffic seeking to access its western and eastern sides.
Feasibility studies, the Minister said, have already been completed for the re-paving and expansion of the West Demerara Highway even as he made reference to ongoing works for the expansion of the East Coast and East Bank Highways.
“This is just to give an indication of the tremendous work that is going on in the construction and the building sector and you know once you have construction and building going on it triggers all the other aspects of the economy,” Ali stressed.
He revealed to the potential investors that the even the mining and quarrying industry has been doing extremely well, recording one of the strongest performances – 16.4 per cent – in the first half of this year. The Minister disclosed, too, that the value added in bauxite has grown by some 50 per cent. He said that Government, in transforming the country, recognised the need for significant investment in infrastructure, even as he alluded to the Berbice River Bridge and the Takutu Bridge, which links Guyana to Brazil, allowing for easy access.
“Last year we had originating out of Brazil 120,000 vehicles crossing into Guyana and 250,000 people coming into Guyana. So you can see the potential that lies in that border area especially for countries that do distribution and those that are big in packaging,” Ali noted.
He told the gathering of mainly overseas business operatives of Guyana’s ability to export flour and construction materials insisting that “if you invest in that area there is tremendous potential of servicing a wide population and expanding your business reach.”

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