India will grant a Line of Credit (LoC) of US$50 million to Guyana for the East Bank Demerara-East Coast Road Link Project, as well as US$8 million to assist in the acquisition of an ocean ferry vessel, the Government Information Agency (GINA) reported yesterday.
India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi informed President Donald Ramotar of the loan during bilateral discussions yesterday, GINA reported. Ramotar is on a six-day official visit to India during which it is expected that he will be among 15 Non-Residential Indians (NRIs), who will be given the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Award.
Prime Minister Modi expressed his appreciation that the President had accepted the invitation to participate in the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas event despite his heavy domestic schedule, GINA said.
The Deccan Herald reported that Ministry of External Affairs official spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin said Modi pledged the LoC after Ramotar sought New Delhi’s assistance for Guyana’s East Bank/East Coast road and Ocean Ferry projects. Modi also told Ramotar that New Delhi would extend the visa-on-arrival facility to citizens of Guyana, the report said. Guyana would be the 44th country to benefit from this facility.
GINA, meantime, reported that the Indian Government will also work with the Guyana Govern-ment in a pilot project on renewable energy using a rice husk gasifier. It was also indicated that the Indian Government had decided that Guyana would be the first country in which it would establish an Information Technology Centre, and that this would be inaugurated very soon, GINA reported.
Over the past several years, Guyana has taken a number of loans from India. Among these are US$19 million for the Providence cricket stadium and US$2.1 million for a traffic lights signalling system.
More recently, India extended another LoC of up to US$20 million which was directed towards the building of the controversial specialty hospital which is still to take off. Another LoC for US$4 million was also extended for the purchase of 14 drainage pumps, a contract which was awarded to Surendra Engineering, the company which was supposed to build the specialty hospital but which is now being sued by the Government of Guyana.
Guyana has also taken a number of loans from China. Yesterday, Reuters reported that Chinese President Xi Jinping pledged US$250 billion in investment in Latin America over the next 10 years as part of a drive to boost resource-hungry China’s influence in a region long dominated by the United States.
Leaders of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, or CELAC – a 33-country bloc that does not include the United States or Canada – gathered in Beijing for the first time for a two-day forum beginning yesterday.
Xi said two-way trade between China and Latin America was expected to rise to $500 billion in 10 years. “This meeting will … give the world a positive signal about deepening cooperation between China and Latin America and have an important and far-reaching impact on promoting South-South cooperation and prosperity for the world,” Xi said, according to the Reuters report.
China and Latin America are cooperating on energy, infrastructure construction, agriculture, manufacturing and technological innovation, Xi said.
Deng Yuwen, a Beijing-based political analyst, said China was interested in the region’s resources and markets, Reuters reported.
