Development and Transportation

Sep 09, 2008 Editorial

In our quest for development, every administration has stressed the remarkable potential that inheres in our nation because of the plethora of resources with which we have been endowed within our eighty-three thousand square miles of continental real estate.

Yet even as we rush towards a half a century of Independence, that potential still by and large remains untapped.

One of the prime reasons why we have been unable to unlock that potential is that we have not broken out of the coastal enclave carved out by the colonial powers, which had made us into a poor replica of the other colonies in the Caribbean –sans the beautiful white beaches.

So here we are with one of the lowest population densities in the world overall, yet ninety percent of our three quarter of a million population are packed like sardines in an area of some two hundred square miles.

To declare that we have to open up the country is to state the obvious: there will be no sustainable development of a magnitude that will catapult us into the list of developed countries unless we have easier access to the potential that is locked away in the interior of our country.

One of the long-recognised threshold components of that easier access has been a highway from the coast to the Brazilian border.

Apart from the plans of the British colonial authorities, as far back as the late seventies, there were discussions between the governments of Guyana and Brazil, at the highest level, on the modalities to construct that highway.

There are at least a dozen feasibility plans for the highway lying on the shelves gathering dust, in some bureaucrat’s office. We now understand that another feasibility study is in the works.

The objection that is reflexively raised is whether such a highway is “economically” viable: meaning whether the economic returns from the highway can justify the sure-to-be enormous construction cost.

But to focus only on the immediate economic benefits of opening up our interior is to miss what it has meant for our developmental thrust not to have accomplished this up to now. We believe that the economists have a term for it – missed opportunity costs.

Last week there was an announcement that the Spanish government was funding a project to plant rice in the interior because the transportation costs from the coast were too high.

In like manner we have been getting into all sorts of contortions to deliver running water and telephones through solar power etc by accepting that the transportation links to our interior was insurmountable.

Every developed country that was blessed by a large landmass, very early on in its journey out of poverty, had to open up their lands – whether through railroads or highways.

There is no alternative. Just as we proposed when we broached the idea that we ought to be looking at the construction of a new capital – away from our certain-to-be-swamped coastland – we have to take the bull by the horns and commit to the highway to Brazil – especially now that the Takatu has been bridged.

The funding for the road can come from several sources – including the Brazilians – that have signalled their interests. We have to simply ensure that our overall national interests are protected.

But the road to Brazil is only one aspect of the need to look at our overall transportation needs within our strategy of sustainable development.

The Bridge to Berbice will give a fillip to east-west trade within our country but the potential for a deep-water harbour on Crab Island or just off it suggests that the road from Brazil through Lethem should not terminate at Linden but should continue onto Berbice to take advantage of the larger ships that can be accommodated there.

The present Linden-Georgetown Highway can handle some of the freight to Port Georgetown – even though congestion problems will have to be confronted.

In addition to the synergies obtained by the inevitable closer linkages to the Northern Brazil economy, overseas markets are indispensable for our own production possibilities from our interior – whether in agriculture or forestry or mining etc. An improved transportation network is key to servicing those markets.

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