…government to consider Shipping Association of Guyana proposal
TOURISM, Industry and Commerce Minister (ag) Irfaan Ali met last Friday with representatives of the Shipping Association of Guyana (SAG) and the Private Sector Commission (PSC) to discuss development of the Demerara Harbour. The meeting took place at the offices of the Ministry of Tourism, Industry and Commerce on South Road, Georgetown, and discussions centred on dredging of the Demerara River and other issues which can help to improve the shipping industry.
“The whole purpose of this meeting is to look at the dredging of the Demerara River, but it is a much wider issue. This is an issue that has implications for trade, both import and export; the pricing of goods and services that pass through the port, because, you know the better facilities you have and the larger ships coming in and so, it creates a better competitive advantage for the consumers in having a more cost effective product,” the minister said.
“We need to have a more comprehensive, overarching look at this issue; and one of the proposals was to look at a public/private partnership in dealing with not only the dredging of the Demerara River, but the entire shipping port facility in a holistic way, so that we can have an overarching plan, a macro plan, and then have a strong public/private partnership in the implementation of that plan,” Minister Ali said.

“The President (Ramotar) has made it very clear that a deep water port does not mean a lack of investment in the Georgetown port,” the Commerce Minister assured. He added, “He has made it very clear that emphasis and importance of the Georgetown port is critical for the development of Guyana, and the government is not going to lose sight of that.”
Chairman of the Shipping Association of Guyana (SAG), Mr Andrew Astwood, said the Shipping Association has been having dialogue with the Maritime Administration Department (MARAD) for a number of years relative to the dredging of the river. “We found that, after a period of time, there was a situation where they did say to us that, ‘look, funding is an issue in terms of getting work done’, and I think that is where the Shipping Association collectively began to look at an approach to deal with this issue; and I think that is where we came up with this proposal to perhaps provide a public/private relationship to look at that facility of dredging the river,” he explained.
Astwood said that since issues concerning the harbour were not only related to dredging of the channel, SAG also looked at upgrading the harbour facilities.
“We thought that it would be appropriate and prudent if we should try to develop the port as a whole, so that all these hidden bottlenecks that were affecting trade and affecting the efficient flow of cargo in and out of the country can be addressed,” he said.
“And we proposed that perhaps, like some of our neighbouring countries, (we could) put in a sort of a port development surcharge,” the SAG Chairman disclosed.
He said the SAG discussions came up with an investment plan costing about US$20M, and a semi-study was done which indicated that perhaps “if we put a surcharge of between US$1 (and) US$2 per each tonne of cargo that comes in and out of the harbour, we should be able, over a ten-year period, to repay a loan that we propose to get to do this project.”
The plan was proposed to the Maritime Administration Department some years ago, Astwood said, and SAG recently collaborated with the PSC — given the sensitivity of this project — to get wider private sector involvement; and together, the bodies came up with a ‘Framework Proposal for the Improvement of Operational Efficiency of the Demerara Harbour’, a copy of which was presented to Minister Ali, to be taken to the Cabinet Sub-Committee on Infrastructure, after which SAG and PSC representatives would meet with the sub-committee in another two weeks’ time.
Also present at the meeting were Chairman of the Private Sector Commission (PSC), Ramesh Dookhoo; Christopher Fernandes, a Trustee of the SAG; and Bernie Fernandes, Deputy Chairman of SAG.