Cocktails, fireworks, prayers and tough talking by President Bharrat Jadgeo marked the opening last evening of the 250-room Buddy’s International Hotel and Resort, the largest hotel in the country.
The hotel and resort built at a cost estimated between US$10 million to US$12 million is on a plot of about 3.2 hectares at Tract ‘BS’ Block 2, Public Road, Providence, East Bank Demerara, north of the Guyana National Stadium.
The President was the main speaker but he was preceded by Minister of Tourism, Industry and Commerce Manniram Prashad and Chief Executive Officer of the Guyana Bank for Trade and Industry (GBTI) Radha Krishna Sharma who congratulated the proprietor of the hotel, Omprakash ‘Buddy’ Shivraj and his family for undertaking and supporting the construction of what is being described as Guyana’s first four-star hotel.
Speaking to a gathering of prominent Guyanese businessmen, government ministers and officials and members of the diplomatic community, Jagdeo defended some of his decisions in relation to government providing financial assistance to Buddy’s by saying that he would not apologise for the things “we are doing” in the interest of the people.
“It is not arrogance or Burnhamism,” he said but it was making tough decisions that are necessary at this juncture of the country’s history to move it forward.
He said there are going to be people who do not like the decisions either because they would be affected personally or they have other political interests. “If we allow that group to take over this country then we would have another doomed generation and I am not prepared to allow that to happen,” he said.
The hotel built in just over a year, he said, was testimony to dedication, hard work and commitment, qualities Guyanese should respect.
Speaking about attitudinal and behavioural changes for the better to ensure development, Jagdeo traced the “small journey” that led to the construction of the Buddy’s International Hotel with the awarding of the Caribbean region with the right to Host Cricket World Cup 2007 and Guyana subsequently being granted the right to host the Super Eight matches.
When Guyana was awarded the Super Eight matches, he felt that Guyana would have been able to provide the quality rooms required for accommodation but this was not the case. “One would have thought it easy to find 400 rooms. We were wrong,” he said. However, it meant that if Guyana could not provide the rooms then there would be no cricket. He said “we” even toyed with the idea of building our own facility but then the proprietor of the hotel, Omprakash Shivraj came forward with the plan to build a hotel.
Thanking Shivraj for helping Guyana to meet its obligation in providing the rooms needed to assist in accommodating the teams, officials, media and sponsors (TOMS), which would provide jobs to some 300 persons, Jagdeo said that the hosting of the CWC matches in Guyana was truly a national effort. “In this context,” he said, “I am not going to give any apology to any of our critics who have argued about us helping Mr Shivraj and I am prepared to help you more because what is even more at stake is national pride.”
The President made these remark because of criticisms in the media about government advancing over $165.7 million of public funds to secure the rooms for the CWC matches. He had explained that the advance was also to assist in bridge financing issues the project was experiencing.
He noted the criticisms levelled at the government for the construction of the stadium and contended that based on reports at the last Caricom Heads of Government Inter-Sessional Meeting held in St Vincent and the Grenadines recently that Guyana had one of the most advanced stadiums.
The President warned that if there are “gripings about me” in the “newspapers” in the next few weeks he was not responding “because we have no apologies” and it was not because “Jagdeo is arrogant or Jagdeo is Burnham.”
He noted the controversy being generated by the removal of vendors in a bid to clean up the Stabroek Market Square and the involvement of the political opposition in the issue. “I don’t have any apologies for the clean-up, too. It is not being done because of foreigners coming into our country,” he said arguing that the “don’t generation would not have us build the Berbice bridge or the Convention centre or would not have us work with the Cubans to build hospitals around the country because the Cubans are making us guinea pigs.” The latter was a reference to a remark made by a PNCR-1G parliamentarian during the budget debate.
The opening of the facility, he noted, would lead to a chain of events which would include the Rio Group summit which would be held in Georgetown from February 28 to March 3 to be followed by the ICC CWC matches and subsequently an inflow of visitors to the country and the development of the tourism industry.
Noting the need for Caribbean citizens to know more about Guyana, he said he has challenged the new Chief Executive Officer of Caribbean Airlines to get some 25,000 visitors from the Caribbean to Guyana since many still think that “we don’t have enough food and we live in tree tops” since they do not have an understanding of what Guyana has to offer.
To ensure the security of the guests and to ensure that the standards are of an international nature, Jagdeo said, “We have brought in some international hotel consultants who will remain during the period of the Rio Group summit.”
He challenged the proprietor to maintain the hotel standard since there would be other large hotels built in the country in the near future, he said.
Though much was said at the opening about the construction of the hotel and meeting the deadlines none of the speakers including Shivraj himself mentioned how much funding and the sources of funding that enabled the construction of the facility. This facility boasts 250 rooms including five presidential suites, 15 executive suites, two restaurants, accommodation for a casino, five bars, a conference room to accommodate some 500 people, a gym, a swimming pool, a stage, a band house and band stand, a car park with the capacity to accommodate 600 cars, lawn tennis and basketball courts and six benabs within the vicinity of the bandstand.
Sharma, the GBTI CEO said that the bank would also provide similar assistance to other entrepreneurs with the capacity to create wealth and economic development. He described Shivraj as a shining example for others to emulate.
He said it was unfortunate that a section of the media which he did not name engaged in a pointless debate on the construction of the hotel meant to diminish progress instead of giving encouragement. He noted the relationship the bank has had with Shivraj over the years but he did not mention the specific assistance the bank provided to the project.
Five mortgages, including an advance from the Guyana government, were secured to aid in the financing of the project.
Among the concessions the hotel would enjoy over the next five years is a tax holiday which means that the hotel would not contribute to government coffers for that period. It is also estimated that tax incentives the government offered the hotel during the construction phase amounted to about US$1 million.
Buddy’s is expected to be one of the first hotels to apply for a casino licence.
