FINANCE Minister Dr. Ashni Singh has challenged the Private Sector of Guyana to let their voices be heard in ensuring that the Amaila Falls Hydroelectricity Project is brought to fruition.

Declaring it is an important national project with immense benefits to the business sector, he issued the call during a business luncheon on Thursday, hosted by the Guyana Manufacturing and Services Association (GMSA) Limited.
The event was organised by the GMSA and featured the Minister of Planning and Sustainable Development of Trinidad and Tobago, Dr. Bhoendradatt Tewarie, who was in the country to attend the 44th Annual Meeting of the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) Board of Governors and extended an invitation to the business sector of Guyana to attend the VIII Americas Competitiveness Forum (ACF) to be held in Trinidad and Tobago in October 2014.
Minister Singh recognised that Guyanese businesses in the manufacturing sector have been forced to invest in redundant power because of impediments to production as a result of interrupting outages.
Major challenges
Singh, in highlighting the dimensions of the environment for competitiveness, noted that one of the major challenges faced by Guyana and the rest of the Region, which ought to be addressed by the forum is the issue of energy which remains a top priority on the Guyana agenda.
The Minister observed that the GMSA and other Private Sector businesses are fully aware that the most severe impediment to growth and expansion and even to competitiveness and profitability in the business sector is the cost and reliability of available energy, further adding that manufacturing businesses have been burdened by investing in redundant sources of energy because a power outage on the production line would ultimately stymie efficiency.
“We have a situation in Guyana where, to put it bluntly, the supply of electricity off of our national grid is more expensive than it should be and it is not as reliable as it should be,” Singh confessed.
Said he:“We understand the challenges of the electricity company and the grid services such a widely dispersed population.”
The Minister pointed out that the Amaila Falls Hydroelectricity Project and the availability of a reliable energy source is one of the most topical issues which transcends to the core of the whole membership, stating the crux of the matter is that there exists a problem with the provision of energy which needs to be addressed.
The solution, he stated, was devised by the Government of Guyana in working along with some of the largest and most credible international institutions and credible international investors.
Minister Singh maintained that it is in the interest of all responsible stakeholders, inclusive of entrepreneurs and households, that the project and projects of similar nature are conceptualised to solve the energy crisis.
He said:“We can debate and philosophise for 100 years on whether this is the ideal project and whether this is the project we should do and whether we should do it now and whether this should be the structure but the truth is that three or four generations ago, the discussion was being had, yet the problem has not been solved and will not be solved unless we act.”
In conclusion, the Minister asserted: “We mustn’t take for granted the growth and stability that we have achieved.
“It is easy to slip into complacency after some eight years of deliberation, nonetheless, it remains an issue which ought not to be taken for granted.”

(By Derwayne Wills)