Georgetown : Guyana would find it difficult to get some types of investments were it not for the Public Private Partnership (PPP) model, President Donald Ramotar said today at a media conference at State House.
“We would find it very, very difficult to get some of the investments we want, unless we use this kind of module to go with,” he said.
He pointed to the Marriott Hotel and the Berbice River Bridge which he observed as a classic example, “as far as infrastructure is concerned to mobilise some public funds and private funds to get it done.”
The President said that with respect to Guysuco, there is now an increase in the lands being leased to farmers on the West Demerara to help it be more effective. “I am sure we have not closed our minds to go into a partnership for a refinery, for a distillery, and many of the other things that we are talking of added value,” he observed.
He said it must be recognised that when resources can be obtained to be put with local ones, “we can get a lot of these things much faster than if we try to do all by ourselves.”
The President insisted that nothing is wrong with the PPP and pointed out that objection is due to lack of information.
Meanwhile, only last month, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited (NICIL), Winston Brassington, told the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) Board of Governors that there is recognition of the concession type model as a useful mechanism to fund infrastructural development aimed at reducing the eventuality of incurring fiscal risk of domestic public debt.
He pointed out that the benefits of the Berbice River Bridge for the country were marked by the significant and essential assistance of the initiative in the reduction of transport time to cross the river, from three hours by ferry to three minutes using the bridge.
This commitment towards PPPs comes despite the objections of the Parliamentary Opposition who state that such a financing structure allowed Guyana little say in the management of the Amaila Falls Hydro Power project which Government had said would have solved Guyana’s long-term power woes. Similar financing regarding the Berbice River Bridge and the Marriott Hotel have also been objected to by the Opposition along with the Specialty Hospital.
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