THE Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) is pursuing a new financing strategy with Guyana, the bank’s president Luis Alberto Moreno said yesterday.Moreno met with President David Granger yesterday at Guyana’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations in New York.

“We have an active portfolio (with Guyana) and we’re looking to start the Bank’s new strategy with the new government,” Moreno said after the meeting. An IDB team is expected in Guyana soon in the process towards finalising the new strategy.
That new portfolio, Foreign Minister Carl Greenidge said, could include concessionary financing for transportation and improvements in the electricity sector. This is apart from the role the IBD plays in disbursing funds under the forest-saving deal with Norway, which had committed US$250 million to Guyana.
All of those funds have not been released, and President Granger said his government was interested in ensuring that Guyana complies with the requirements for disbursing all of the funds to support renewable energy solutions.
Mr Moreno said the IDB was keen on ensuring that its “scarce resources” are for the benefit of all the people of Guyana.
During his meeting with Mr Granger, the IDB President was briefed on the aggression by Venezuela on the country’s western frontier and how this has had a negative impact on the economy, hindering development.
He made specific reference to the case two years ago when Venezuela seized a U.S.-chartered oil survey ship.
The Teknik Perdana was carrying out a seabed survey for Texas-based Anadarko when Venezuela’s navy boarded it in Guyanese waters and escorted it to Margarita island.

“In terms of the economic impact, it has scared away investors…,” President Granger told the top IDB official.

The funds are needed as the new coalition government pursues an economic revival. Granger, who led the APNU+AFC coalition to victory at general elections in May, said the new government inherited an anaemic economy and access to concessional funds could keep the economy floating.
“As you know, the Guyanese economy, when we took it over at the end of May showed serious signs of anemia.”
The President referred to the fact that significant funds have been spent to keep sugar alive, and the same has been the case in the rice industry, which recently lost the lucrative Venezuelan market.
Further, he said bauxite sales have been “fairly flat” while gold prices have dipped. The President said the new government has to cope with these challenges to the economy while investing heavily in the social sectors to ease poverty.
But in order for this spending on the social sector to continue, the President said there is need to keep the economy boiling and the IDB would prove to be “a very important partner in this regard.”

By Neil Marks in New York