Maritime logistics company Abu Dhabi Ports is currently evaluating the possibility of establishing a deep water harbour link between Guyana and Brazil, according to President Dr Irfaan Ali.
President Ali told a press conference on Friday that two teams from Abu Dhabi Ports, which is headquartered in the United Arab Emirates, had already visited Guyana.
The company specialises in ports and terminal operations, maritime training, logistics support, vessel management, and marine services.
“They had two technical teams in Guyana working and looking at the possibility of the establishment of a deep water harbour link to Brazil and at that meeting, we had in-depth discussions on this possibility. The interest is great in this project and in two to three weeks, they will have a second team coming with a follow up on evaluation and they’re looking at a modern state-of-the-art port facility operated with cutting edge technology, focusing on efficiency, safety and security,” the President informed.
He explained that the project is across borders and will benefit Brazil, Suriname and Guyana.
“We have started discussions with both Brazil and Suriname and all three countries are strongly committed to this project. Brazil has reinforced their commitment because, as you know, the deep water harbour is important in terms of their own efficiency, [and] capability. It affects the cost of doing business for them very positively,” he said.
The project is expected to be a private sector investment, according to Ali, and Abu Dhabi Ports is leading the studies to come up with a technical evaluation and then a financial evaluation of the project.
“Their initial assessment is one of great optimism—that’s how they describe it. They believe that this is a project that can happen. This is a project that is viable. They are now working on, if you want to say, the nitty-gritty, the finer details in terms of this project and, of course, on the table will be Guyana, Brazil Suriname,” the Guyanese Head of State said.
Additionally, Ali informed that a strategic meeting between Guyana, Suriname, Brazil and French Guyana is already scheduled for early 2022.
The interest in a deep water harbour between Guyana and Brazil has been on the agenda for a number of years through the Partial Scope Agreement which was signed between the two countries on June 27, 2001.
In May of this year, at a virtual meeting between Agriculture Minister Zulfikar Mustapha and Brazil’s Minister of Agriculture Tereza Cristina, interests were renewed in relation to the deep water harbour.
“With the government’s intention to develop a deep-water harbour, persons travelling from Northern Brazil will be able to use that deep water harbour to effectively export their produce. Rather than having to use the Pacific Coast, they can use the Atlantic Coast and export their produce in two days,” Minister Mustapha had said.
His Brazilian counterpart had echoed his sentiments, saying “…, we believe that the deep water harbour is very important and would assist greatly with getting both Guyanese and Brazilian products into the region. I am also aware that there are issues with the highway connecting our northern states. For our exports to take place in substantial volumes, it would be good for those conditions to be improved. I think that this is something that we could discuss with our Minister of Infrastructure in Brazil and with our Ambassador, and have a meeting to discuss these constraints. We have several businesses from the agricultural and soya bean sector in Brazil that would like to invest in Roraima and it would be crucial to have this corridor to send that production through your harbour.”
