Guyana and Brazil have agreed that a cost analysis is essential to moving ahead with the Linden to Lethem road project.
This was one of the agreements emanating from a meeting between Guyana’s Foreign Minister Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett and Minister of External Relations of Brazil, Antonio de Aguiar Patriota, on the sidelines of the MERCOSUR Summit in Montevideo, Uruguay yesterday.
A statement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday said that “Considering the common desire of moving forward as soon as possible with the project of upgrading the road, they highlighted the need to execute the cost analysis of the initiative, with agreed terms of reference. They agreed that the successful completion of the appropriate analysis will provide conditions for starting the project.”
The financial feasibility of the project for a paved highway between the two points and who would fund it have been on the agenda here for several decades.
The ministers agreed that once the road planning is underway activities could begin on the planning of a complementary deep water harbour. This project and where the harbour should be sited has also been on the local agenda for many years. Critics of the government here has said that Suriname is advancing quickly on these projects which will give it access to the Brazilian north.
On energy projects, the Ministers recognized the benefits to Guyana’s economy of using its hydropower potential to supply local demand and commercialize surplus generated power, “observing mutually advantageous conditions”.
They noted that the relevant departments of both governments will expand the studies on the energy projects for evaluation and possible development of hydropower plants and associated transmission lines within the ambit of regional energy integration.
The Ministers asserted that the feasibility of the projects requires a financially sustainable structure and that this may comprise official mechanisms, the contribution of multilateral financial institutions and/or private investment.
They ministers also concurred on the necessity of a deeper analysis of the technical, economic, financial and environmental feasibility of the projects to estimate revenue generation and financing structuring.
Since the infrastructure projects in the transportation and energy fields will promote the economic and social development of both countries, the Ministers restated the need to move forward and it was therefor agreed that the “Brazil-Guyana Joint Commission on Infrastructure Development” would be created.
