India approves US$60M loan for Guyana

Jan 09, 2015 News

– Mainly for East Bank-East Coast road link

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi with President Donald Ramotar (left) in Gandhinagar, Gujarat. (Photo PTI)

India has approved a new Line of Credit of US$60M for two major projects in Guyana.

The monies will fund the East Bank-East Coast of Demerara road link, and a ferry to be used in the North West District area.

According to news reports out of India yesterday, the deals were initially agreed to after meetings between President Donald Ramotar and Indian PM on the sidelines of the 13th Pravasi Bharatiya Divas in Gandhinagar.

Modi has also signaled intentions for India to set up its first IT Centre of Excellence in Guyana.

“President Donald Ramotar and I had a very good meeting. We discussed ways of enhancing India-Guyana co-operation,” Modi tweeted later.

Ramotar is the chief guest at the event where he is set to join a number of high profile personalities from around the world to receive one of India’s highest overseas awards.

“In the meeting there were discussions on possibilities of India assisting Guyana, and the Prime Minister has informed that for two major projects, India will be providing a line of credit for approximately US$60 million,” Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin told reporters.

An aerial view of the area where government says it wants to build a new road to link the East Bank and East Coast Demerara highways.

Modi also announced ‘Visa on Arrival’ facility for citizens of the Republic of Guyana, which is home to a large number of people of Indian origin. It was also being reported that Guyana may be seeking India’s help into struggling sugar industry, with Ramotar also showing “keen interest in understanding India’s cooperative movement”.
“Since sugarcane is one of Guyana’s important products, the President wanted to know about the facilities and the cooperative movement here. The PM has requested him to visit Valsad (Gujarat) where there is a very active cooperative sector focused on sugarcane,” Akbaruddin said.
With regards to the East Coast/East Bank Demerara linkup, Government has for a number of years been talking about constructing a new road which will link Ogle and Eccles. The idea is to ease traffic congestion along the East Bank especially. A major project to upgrade the current Sheriff Street-Mandela Avenue thoroughfare has been seen as not being enough to handle the volume of traffic currently traversing to and from the East Bank Demerara which is a critical link to the Timehri airport, the hinterland and West Demerara.

The North West ferry route has been struggling for some time now with an aging vessel plying that route. Passengers have been complaining of conditions and the irregular schedule of the runs.

Meanwhile, Guyana would badly want help with the sugar situation. Last year, the industry barely managed to squeeze past the original target of 216,000 but its high rate of efficiency has continued to contribute to high losses. Its US$200M Skeldon estate project with a new factory has been a nightmare, performing the worst of all the factories in Guyana last year. The industry is proving a headache, with Parliament being asked every year to bail out GuySuCo, a state-owned company that has fallen on hard times and which has over 16,000 workers…the largest single employer in Guyana.