Chairman of the Private Sector Commission (PSC) Komal Singh insists that there is need for Guyana’s shipping woes to be addressed.
“The private sector now has a serious concern … you would have heard us talk about for a very long time. We need to develop a more robust, logistical, shipping service,” Singh said in a comment to this newspaper.
Guyana, for decades, has faced the issue of not having deep-water channels and most of the shipments that should be headed to Guyana have to transit neighbouring countries. Large ships with cargo, intended for the Guyana market, have to be offloaded in other countries, including Trinidad and Tobago and placed on small vessels that can navigate the waters of Guyana. This incurs higher costs for shipment and downtime is a factor.
The PSC Chairman echoed the call for action by the private sector for this issue to be resolved, especially at a time when the importation of items is higher than ever.
“With the amount of imports we are having currently in Guyana and because of the timeliness, we need these imports; it is critical that we fix our logistics issue,” Singh said.
He applauded the government for pushing to fix the issue.
President Irfaan Ali had said recently at the launching of the new Namilco Mixing Plant: “We need the draft in the Demerara fixed because just like energy is an impediment, the cost of transportation is also an impediment… if one ship can bring 30,000 tonnes and then you need five trips to come with 6,000 each, that tells you that you are not really benefiting from economies of scale. That’s why I’m pushing the MARAD and the shipping association for us to move quickly in finding a model that is sustainable and one that is cost-effective. In terms of what we do to fix this problem.”
The President said it required a full understanding of the problem before a decision was made and also where budgetary allocations will go as part of making way for larger vessels.
“The expansion of the channel, too. We now have to think seriously, although we know that we have to do a new deep-water harbour, what should be the optimal channel for the Demerara River; whether we go to a two-lane channel,” Ali said.
“I’m working with Barbados … maybe Barbados can give us a special area on their port where we have all the containers there and we have a more efficient transhipment plan from Barbados to Guyana with the two countries at the government level entering into an arrangement.”
The President said that the talks were in the “advance stage” and importers will soon benefit from ease in the shipping congestion.
