Guyana’s cork will duck

Sep 30, 2018 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

A number of forces have combined to reduce the number of minibuses which ply the Corentyne. These days it is only a handful of minibuses which provide transportation on routes – long and short – between New Amsterdam and Skeldon. In the main, the minibuses have been replaced by by hire cars.
So what has led to the reduction of the mini-buses on the Corentyne and their replacement by these hire cars which charge per seat?
One of the contributing factors – just one – is the government school buses which provided free transportation to school children and which has crowded out the private sector. This may not necessarily be the foremost reason why the minibus population on the Corentyne has been reduced.
Some people contend that the economic crisis in Berbice, caused by the closure of the sugar estates, has resulted in less people travelling. This has caused it to be more economical to operate a short-drop hire car rather than a minibus. Others say that it is the spate of fatal accidents involving mini-buses which have forced commuters to opt for the hire cars which speed less and which have less stops than a minibus journey.
But no one disputes that the introduction of the government school buses has crowded out private transport operators. The transportation of school children is a life source for hire cars and buses on the Corentyne and the government buses have taken food out of the mouth of many of these operators. It has crowded out the private sector.
The government seems oblivious to the effects of its big buses on the private transportation sector. It saw itself doing a good for a few poor families but has not seen the wider implications of its decision. Students who can afford private transportation and those who cannot are both now using the government buses and this has reduced the number of children travelling by private transportation daily.
The effect may not be that great in Georgetown where there are thousands of children commuting daily to school. But on the Corentyne, where the total number of commuters is small, the daily loss of two busloads of children can have a devastating effect on private minibus and hire car operators.
The plight of transportation operators on the Corentyne is an example of how well-intended social programmes by the government can crowd out the private sector. It is a lesson which the government should study.
The APNU+AFC recently signed an agreement with China for US$50M – part grant, part loan – for providing extended broadband services. Unlike, the MOU with the government of Trinidad and Tobago which was published on the very day it was signed, but only after public pressure had been applied, the government has not yet made public the text of the agreements it signed with China.
A number of observations can be made about the broadband agreement. First, it is a lot of money involved. Guyana will be borrowing US$36M of the US$50M for the project. The total amount provided is G$10B. This is an astronomical sum for broadband development considering that the extension of the East Coast highway is costing the same sum of money.
Second, and this is where the issue of crowding out the private sector comes in, why is the government involving itself in providing broadband services. Is this not an activity for the private sector? Why is the government crowding – out the private sector in the provision of broadband services? What has happened to the Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company and Digicel – the two major telecommunication providers in Guyana – cannot they provide these services?
What is to become of the broadband services which are provided by these companies? Guyana is not a massive market. These companies have made significant investments in providing broadband services, only to now find that government, through the kindness of China, is now a competitor and can force them out of the market.
What happens in the long-term? Where is the government going to find the additional investments to maintain its broadband services and to graduate to new platforms as the technology changes?
It is not difficult to hazard a guess as to where the money will come from. It will come from China. It is not hard to predict, the long-term implications of this dependence. China will eventually own Guyana’s entire telecommunication spectrum.
The closure of the sugar estates has hurt the transportation sector in Berbice. But if GT&T and Digicel walk away from Guyana, the entire country will suffer, China or no China.

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Guyana’s cork will duck

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