Dear Editor,
We seem to have lost out again with the Brazilians, since it’s July and we have not been told that the ultimatum given to us by them to decide if we will partner them in building a hydroelectric dam, a deep water harbour and a proper highway to Brazil by the end of June has been met.
Numerous Brazilian delegations from all levels have approached this government in desperation to allow this development of both Guyana and Brazil to move forward, but they have gotten tired of asking this government to be their partners in these projects which will benefit both countries, so they had given them an ultimatum: if by the end of June the PPP does not agree to the projects they will go to Suriname.
We keep asking ourselves why? Why? Why? How could we not embrace these projects with Brazil since they could benefit this country in such a fundamental way?
We hardly have any big projects with the World Bank or the IDB today since none of our projects would pass their criteria as being feasible, including the Skeldon project. We have the Chinese financing everything ‒ airport, Marriot, hydropower ‒ and their objective does not seem to be to lend us money for projects which can be repaid, since we are investing in schemes which are not viable and could never return a profit. Therefore we have to ask ourselves why are the Chinese doing this? The answer is simple, they are recolonizing us through economic debt and the current executives of the PPP don’t care.
It’s a different phenomenon with the Brazilians; they need us to be their partners because of our geographical location so that we both can benefit from the development it can bring. However, they, the Brazilians, will build it so the shenanigans the PPP has become notorious for will have to stop for these projects.
Yours faithfully,
Tony Vieira