TWO SIGNIFICANT events pertaining to Guyana’s future economic development took place last week — one in New York, the other in Shanghai, Republic of China.
They both should have the effect, hopefully, of checking the flow of emotional criticisms, malicious misinformation, and worse, by a combination of frustrated politicians and parties, as well as those propagandists of ‘gutter journalism’ obsessed with ‘bad-mouthing’ the government of this nation.
First, there was the joint official announcement in New York by President Jagdeo and Norway’s Prime Minister, Jens Stoltenberg, on the latest progress in the establishment of the Guyana REDD+ Investment Fund, popularly referred to as ‘GRIF’.
Under this Fund, Norway intends to contribute up to US$250 million to help in the protection of Guyana’s vast forest resources, consistent with the government’s visionary climate change programme that has attracted much positive international interest.
With the creation of GRIF, Norway will deliver, by month-end, an initial payment of US$30 million of its originally disclosed US$250 million commitment over a five-year period (2010-2015).
The Norwegian Prime Minister and President Jagdeo were at the time in New York for the second meeting of the United Nations Secretary-General’s high-level Advisory Group on Climate Change Financing.
This financing initiative by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, is designed to raise a US$100 billion target to assist developing countries to confront the challenges of climate change.
Secondly, while in Shanghai, as head of CARICOM’s delegation to China’s massive ‘Expo 2010’, President Jagdeo signed a ‘framework agreement’ for another major government programme geared to boost Guyana’s economic development — the Amaila Falls hydropower project.
As announced by Finance Minister Dr. Ashni Singh in Parliament on Tuesday while President Jagdeo was still in Shangai, the arrangements for funding this project (which had also been misrepresented by critics, and scoffed at by political opponents) should be concluded within a year, if not earlier.
Involved in financing the Amaila Falls project are the China Development Bank and China Railway First Group Company Limited; Guyana Power and Light Incorporated; and Sithe Global Amaila Holdings Limited.
The intellectually bankrupt, and those whose hatred against the government drive them to misrepresent or emotionally oppose every major effort by the government to help advance the social and economic progress of the nation may be incapable to at least recognise the value of two very significant developments that occurred in the past week in New York and Shangai.
Nevertheless, thanks to international commitment, as primarily demonstrated to date by the governments of Norway and China, solid arrangements have been laid to push ahead with plans for the realisation of Guyana’s visionary climate change programme and the Amaila hydro-power project.
Irrespective of prevailing unfortunate political misunderstandings and divisions, Guyana, as a whole, stands to benefit from the arrangements in place for realisation of the major GRIF and Amaila Falls projects.