The Privatisation Unit yesterday said that the headline in yesterday’s edition of the Stabroek News entitled `IDB unveils $$ for eight Marriott hotels…but Guyana still not on radar’ was misleading.
“The simple fact is Guyana has not applied to the IDB for funding of this hotel project and therefore could not be expected to feature on such a list. Despite the periodic press releases providing updates on progress, it is disappointing that SN continues to portray this Marriott project in a negative light”.
In response, SN’s Editor-in-Chief Anand Persaud said no where in the news item was it stated that Guyana had applied to the IDB for funding of its Marriott Hotel project. Persaud said the news item was pointing out that while financing plans for eight Marriotts in the region were being finalized there was still no word about Guyana’s.
Persaud added that it was interesting that Guyana was apparently not seeking bank financing for a segment of this project even though the IDB is the major multilateral financier here and Jamaica and Trinidad were among locations to benefit.
As to the Privatisation Unit contention that SN continued to portray the Marriott project in a negative light, Persaud said the designers of the project and the prospective investors have to be credited with any bad publicity as they have bumbled from one fiasco to the next. Persaud noted that the project had been on the agenda since 2006 but a deal is still to be concluded.