Sustained lobbying by local aircraft owners and by the private sector as a whole has been gradually loosening the state’s purse strings as far as effecting repairs and renovation to the country’s ageing domestic aviation infrastructure is concerned.
In his 2013 budget presentation, Finance Minister Dr Ashni Singh announced that government is allocating $248 million for the rehabilitation of three interior airstrips and the maintenance of 43 others in regions One, Two, Seven, Eight and Nine. Singh named Matthew’s Ridge, Imbaimadai and Kamarang as the three airstrips that will benefit from rehabilitation this year, a sign that the upgrading of infrastructure designed to support more aggressive private sector investment in the interior is the key to state spending on interior projects. Matthew’s Ridge, Imbaimadai and Kamarang are critical airstrips for investors in the country’s gold and manganese sectors and the announcement that these airstrips have been targeted for rehabilitation points to the growing strength of a mining lobby that has been significantly re-enforced in recent years, mostly by sustained gold prices on the world market and attendant increased investment in the sector locally.
The announcement of a move to improve interior airstrips coincides with the country’s celebration of 100 years of aviation which was marked by a pronouncement by President Donald Ramotar regarding a link between the aviation sector and the development of the mining and tourism industries in Guyana.
Local aviation officials have also pointed to the growth and expansion of the Ogle Airport since the signing of a public/private sector partnership for the development of the facility and the creation of the Ogle Airport Inc, the body created to oversee the upgrading and running of the facility. Sector officials have told this newspaper that the development of the Ogle Airport will increase the number of regional flights arriving in Guyana, and by extension the number of flights from the coast that will land at interior airstrips, a circumstance that gives rise to the need for more government investment in upgrading interior runways and other aviation facilities.
Several weeks ago Air Services Ltd General Manager Annette Arjoon-Martins told Stabroek Business that the company’s efforts to expand and further improve its facilities was due in large measure to the continually increasing demand for aviation services in the mining community.
In his budget speech, Singh said the growth of the mining and quarrying industries which is projected at 3 per cent “will continue to be led by gold” with production for the current year targeted at 450,031 ounces representing a 2.6 per cent expansion in output.
Meanwhile, the Finance Minister also announced that government is to spend $80 million on the acquisition of an Automated Dependent Surveillance Broadcast facility in order to bring “precision and reliability” to satellite-based surveillance within the national airspace.
