-will help push development in several sectors

THE Government of Guyana is expected to receive significant financial assistance come 2017 following the approval of several loans for developmental works, Finance Minister, Winston Jordan disclosed on Monday.

He told reporters at his final press conference for the year that the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), the country’s biggest lender has approved four loans, all of which are to be signed by February 2017. US$9M is being provided for the enhancement of national quality infrastructure for diversification and trade promotion; the establishment of facilities for meteorology testing, purchase of laboratory equipment for the Bureau of Standards, Ministries of Public Health and Agriculture.

Additionally, US$8M has been approved among other things to rehabilitate the CC Nicholson Hospital and maternity waiting home, to procure equipment for health facilities at GPHC, the CC Nicholson Hospital and the Georgetown Maternity waiting home as well as for institutional strengthening.

The identified sum will aid in the improvement of maternal and child health while US$15M has been allocated for the Agriculture Sustainable Development Project which will see the construction and rehabilitation of centers in Regions Nine and 10 and will also allow for the undertaking of an agriculture census and pilot project.

Support for the criminal justice system to the tune of US$15M is also in train and is expected to see alternative sentencing interventions, strengthening probation services, the design and implementation of restoration justice , training of judges and magistrates in the use of alternative sentencing and detention and law reform being addressed.

Additionally, the Government is also benefitting from technical assistance valued at US$442,000 for the institutional strengthening of the country’s national statistics system which is aimed at assisting the Bureau of statistics to undertake two critical data collection: Consumer Price Index and the Levels of unemployment across the country.
An unemployment survey was never done, said the Minister of Finance who explained that proxies were done in the past. “This one will be a full fledge unemployment survey to take place so you’d get all kinds of levels of unemployment, regional, Georgetown’s unemployment is not Region 10s,” said Jordan.

The project is expected to start next year
The IDB has also approved technical assistance for US$745,000 to modernize the valuation division in Guyana. The technical assistances seek to improve management in real property tax assessment and Minister Jordan noted that “the database for valuation in this country is extremely outdated.”

“Our valuation department is extremely challenged both staffing wise and equipment, system wise so this technical assistance will go a far way,” he stated.
Meanwhile, the Minister reminded reporters of government’s recent signing of a concessionary loan agreement with the CARICOM Development Fund (CDF) to the tune of US$10, 432, 263 last week for a number of agriculture-related interventions.

The identified amount, which is part loan and grant, is aimed at providing the communities of Buxton, Ithaca, Beterverwagting and Mocha-Arcadia with much needed assistance to restore and upgrade drainage and irrigation canals, provide farming equipment, as well as to install pumps in the identified communities.

Development bank
He said too the US$194M allocated by the Caribbean Development Bank for the market study to see if it is feasible to re-establish a development bank here. Technical assistance for institutional strengthening to develop capacity for development planning is expected to begin next year however; the Minister said there are some “hiccups” in finding “quality people to do this.”

Referencing government’s recent interactions with the Islamic Development Bank, the Finance Minister said government will continue to engage the bank to follow through on some of the promises they made as well as some of the projects put forward by this country.

He cited the distance of the bank as a major stumbling block. Additionally, the World Bank is slated to work with Guyana on improving its national payment system in the new year and the minister described the projects as an important one that would see the reduction in cash payments in the public system.

The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) has also approved a loan this month for $8M; the loan which also has a grant component will address hinterland environmental sustainable agriculture development in Guyana and will support agriculture development activities in Regions One and Nine.

Meanwhile, the European Union Investment Bank has been engaging the Guyana Government, something that has not occurred for about 20 years and according to the Minister of Finance, “the possibilities are endless.” Three proposals were submitted to the Bank in the areas of private sector and infrastructural development, as well as renewable energy. Additionally, under the 11th European Development Fund (EDF) €34M has been allocated for sea and river defence programmes.

As it relates to the construction of the East Coast by-pass road to be facilitated through a loan of US$50 million from the Export-Import Bank of India, Minister Jordan said things are moving slowly. The 20km bypass road is to stretch from Ogle on the East Coast Demerara to Great Diamond, East Bank Demerara.
“There has been no significant movement…hopefully in the New Year, it will speed up,” he said. However, progress is being made on the US$18 million deal to procure a new ferry to ply the Georgetown to North-West route. The USD$18M comprises a USD$8M grant and USD$10M concessionary loan to be repaid within 20 years with a five-year grace period.

On the Bilateral front, the Minister said China and Guyana are to sign a US$47M loan to complete the road between Plaisance and Belfield, East Coast Demerara.