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The Southern Connection

Dec 10, 2012 Editorial

Late last week, Foreign Affairs Minister, Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett and her Brazilian counterpart, Antonio Patriota signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to establish a Working Group on infrastructure that is supposed to submit a report on the feasibility of making the Linden-Lethem road into an all-weather Highway; the creation of a deep-water harbour and the construction of a hydro-electric facility.
Many, if not most Guyanese must have rolled their eyes at the announcement: they have heard it so many times before. The completion of the Takatu Bridge in 2009 had raised great expectations but this also petered out. Going all the way back to 1977, the Brazilians have persistently made representations at the very highest level of our government to have the Linden-Lethem road widened and surfaced. When the Brazilians expanded the sleepy rubber-plantation town of Manaus in the middle of the Amazon into a world-class manufacturing centre, they fully appreciated that one of the constraints of its international competitiveness was the remoteness of the location from its major ports.
The more than US$20 billion worth of goods produced by the two-million residents of Manaus and the burgeoning agricultural products, especially soya from the northern states, including our neighbouring Roraima State, have to be ferried hundreds of miles east on the Amazon to the port of Belem. From here they leave for world markets, including North America and Europe. But the trip up the Amazon adds weeks to the delivery schedule, which would be eliminated if Brazil had access on the northern (Atlantic) coast.
This is what Guyana could provide. For us, the benefits would be incalculable: starting with the roads that would open-up our interior – especially the savannahs that could replicate the development of the Brazilian equivalent across the Takatu River. There would also be the port and the storage facilities to service the trade – not to mention the opportunity for Guyanese exports like rice, bauxite and sugar to also lower their landed costs. The question arises as to why the Brazilian interest has not been reciprocated with greater alacrity.
To anyone looking at Guyana’s location on a globe, it would be the most natural assumption to make that our relations are seamlessly integrated on account of the extensive border we share between identical rolling savannahs. We can blame history – we were ruled by Britain and relations were directed northwards – or on demographics – our population resides overwhelmingly on the Atlantic Ocean – but the fact of the matter is that we have never really connected either as states or as peoples.
And this is really a shame, given our histories and our needs. Brazil is the only one of our continental neighbours that does not have any claim to our territories: our borders were demarcated during colonial times and Brazil has never raised a squeak about them. The Indigenous Peoples that populate the contiguous savannahs have been allowed to cross unhindered so that family ties can be maintained. And last but not least, there has been the wider development of Brazil into a global power that offers us a great opportunity to cooperate for our mutual future development.
While we have dawdled, much smaller Suriname has been assiduously working with Chinese finance to present itself as a more viable outlet for trade. It has certainly been a more willing partner to the Brazilians. Almost two decades ago, our National Development Strategy identified northern Brazil as a market for sugar and rice (almost one million tons at that time). Since then Brazil has not stood still: they are now satisfying much of their need for rice by cultivating rice on their savannahs.
On the proposal for Hydro-electric power generation, this possibility was identified by former Brazilian President Lula, himself: again the impetus is Brazilian, to satisfy their northern developmental drive but the spinoffs would benefit us immensely. Our own incipient Amaila Falls Hydro-Electric Project will at best take care of our present electricity needs: the Brazilian proposal would satisfy our growth.
We propose that the Government and the Opposition should jointly monitor this MoU.

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