IDB President Luis Alberto Moreno arrived in Guyana on Friday for a one-day visit which is likely to be crucial to the Amaila hydro project going ahead.
GINA said that a meeting was convened on Saturday at the Office of the President where officials of the Government provided a brief to the visiting delegation on the preparatory works and challenges of the Amaila Falls Hydropower Project.
In a comment after the meeting, the IDB President told GINA that he acknowledges the significant importance with which the country regards the project and the challenges that abound.
Recently, executives of Sithe Global, the developer of the Amaila Falls Hydro Project, said they are counting on the IDB to provide critical financing for the project.
This follows the decision by the World Bank not to participate, which stupefied officials of the hydro project developer, who said that the institution has always thrown its weight and funds towards similar projects around the world and they cited the most recent case in a project in the Philippines.
The officials are now hoping that financial closure comes soon –by June this year—since further delays could see this present window of locking in a fixed price being closed and increasing the possibility of the final cost of the project escalating further. As it stands, the cost of the project is US$840 million, increased significantly because of currency movements, commodity prices and political risk insurance that had to be sought for the financing of the project.
The project has been mired in controversy and during recent tripartite political talks here, President Donald Ramotar committed to having experts brief a plenary meeting of the three parties on the project. This would be without prejudice to any further measure that the two opposition parties APNU and the AFC might seek. Both APNU and the AFC have been critical of arrangements for the project and have argued for greater transparency.
