Some 661.78 acres of former East Demerara estate land will be transformed into an industrial zone that will see factories producing myriad products, aimed at making Guyana competitive in manufacturing, and the infrastructure is currently being developed to facilitate this, President Irfaan Ali has said.
“It is for heavy industrial, commercial and manufacturing facilities…,” President Ali explained to the Stabroek News.
In one of his proposed largest transformational projects since taking office, Ali envisions that some of the facilities for the state-of-the-art industrial zone will include manufacturing of dairy products, food and beverages, fabrication, and oil and gas support services.
He sees the project as tying in with his vision to transform the East Coast Demerara corridor into a business and housing development zone equipped to provide ample jobs and homes for locals, and by extension development of the economy and country.
Given that the 4702.5 hectares acres area once was a sugar cane estate that provided jobs to several hundreds who were left unemployed when the APNU+AFC shuttered the facility, Ali hopes that employment and investment opportunities would be created for them and thousands of others. At its height, the estate employed around 2,000 people.
With the Central Housing and Planning Authority facilitating the infrastructural work, tenders for the project – Infrastructure Development Works at Enmore/Foulis Commercial Industrial Area, Lots 1-6-, were earlier this month opened at the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board (NPTAB). (https://www.npta.gov.gy/wp-content/uploads/Tender-Evaluation-Details-April-12-2023.pdf)
The work includes clearing, building roads, foot paths, canals, and engineering service reserves. Some 12 companies have submitted billion-dollar bids which are still being evaluated.
“We are now putting the infrastructure in place to facilitate these developments,” the President noted.
Minister of Housing and Water Collin Croal explained that there is currently a master plan, but that work will be done in phases. Showing an illustration of the plan, Croal explained that within the industrial zone there will be three categories – commercial, light industrial, and heavy industrial.
Thirty-seven companies will have the opportunity to invest in the commercial areas, about 30 in the light industrial zone, and around 34 in the heavy industrial.
Croal said that Ali, a former minister of housing himself, had pointed out that land on the East Bank Demerara was limited and that the focus should be on finding other areas with land space to develop. “You have now this East Coast Demerara shift…,” he said.
“With the design of the East Coast Demerara, you see us focused on overall urban planning. There are plans for creation of lots for housing, but there is also preparation for having this [the Enmore Estate area] transformed into a zone to create thousands of jobs, have opportunities for investment for both locals and foreign companies and… development,” the Minister of Housing said.
Plans entailing the conversion of the former estate into an agro-industrial area and the setting aside of land for housing and other purposes were made in 2021.
A subsidiary of Surinamese-owned Rudisa Inc, Caribbean International Distributors Inc (CIDI) in 2021 signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Guyana Office for Investment (GO-Invest) for the development of a US$35 million agro-processing facility at Enmore.
A joint release from GO-Invest and Rudisa, released by the Department of Public Information on the day of the signing, stated that the facility was expected to engage in the production and packaging of various products, ranging from milk, natural fruit juices, and water, to a variety of bread products, such as hamburger rolls, biscuits, cookies, croissants, bagels and donuts, to supply Guyana’s local and export markets.
The release added that the facility will employ approximately 600, be a significant boost to the businesses of local fruit and dairy farmers, who will be the chief suppliers, and enhance Guyana’s capacity for large-scale production of packaged fruit and dairy products. No other information has been shared on the progress of this investment since its announcement.
Last year, a $7 billion (US$35 million) investment by Guysons and K+B Investments Inc (GK+B) was entered into and seems on track to be one the first projects to start up in the area. Sources had said last month that paperwork hurdles were to be completed before the investment could get underway. This newspaper understands that those documents have since been completed and the company has the legal leeway to begin its work.
At the 2022 International Energy Conference, the companies had announced their joint partnership, which President Ali said would create tremendous job opportunities.
“These are highly skilled jobs being created and the company has committed to commence that process almost immediately to have the eventual 500 employees trained and ready to take up jobs in the company,” he said. “We cannot be narrow-minded. I keep saying to every Guyanese, we have to up our level of thinking, [it] cannot be contained in a box anymore. It is a different era and a different scope that we operate in.”
In the same breath, he had announced that the government would be investing heavily in creating a road network.
When this newspaper visited the Enmore location last month, it was observed that infrastructural development work to convert the land into the Enmore Industrial Site had commenced. Sand filling was underway and trees were being taken down. Several pieces of heavy machinery were at the location.
Croal had issued an update saying that infrastructure work – clearance, internal roads and access bridges – was being carried out in preparation for opening up the land strictly for commercial and industrial purposes. The site is currently being accessed through the corporation’s old housing scheme where a road is being built.
The Minister of Housing reminded that work would be done in phases but it would not be slothful and that by the time the Wales gas to shore project was completed, so would most of the industrial zone’s development work.
It is hoped that reliable and affordable power from the gas to shore facility will see people wanting to invest in manufacturing here, given that this country has abundant food resources and people who are enthusiastic about learning new skills and building businesses and communities.
