– Project Monitoring Committee tours facility

Minister of Public Telecommunications, Cathy Hughes, has announced that the Arthur Chung Conference Centre (ACCC) is expected to be re-commissioned “right on time” with its scheduled 18-month rehabilitation schedule.

The Minister made these comments last Friday during a visit to the facility by members of the Project Monitoring Committee for the rehabilitation of the Arthur Chung Conference Centre (ACCC).

Led by Minister Hughes, the visiting party also included representatives of the Foreign Affairs, Business and Public Infrastructure Ministries. The tour was conducted by the Engineering team from the China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation that was contracted by the Government of China to execute the rehabilitation of the Conference Centre. General Manager of ACCC, Ramdial Nancoomar, led the tour and he provided additional information on the new sections and services that have been added to the complex. These include a fully equipped Computer Room; new equipment for the Translation Service, as well as new Press and Translator booths in the main auditorium.

The latter, also called “the Dome”, is being completely re-designed from floor to ceiling. It will now hold 372 new seats affixed to the floor, the foundation for which was raised by close to two feet. In fact, the flooring of the entire complex was similarly raised, and thousands of new granite tiles are being laid.

Minister Hughes said that she is anxious to hand the building back to the Guyanese people this May. She described it as part of Guyana’s historically close bilateral relations with the People’s Republic of China which has spanned over 51 years and which the Government of Guyana would like to sustain. The Arthur Chung Conference Centre (ACCC) was closed on December 1, 2016, to facilitate major rehabilitation, and it is expected to be ready for use right on time with the planned 18-month schedule. The complex, which had been constructed between 2004 and 2006, was a gift to the people of Guyana from the people of China.

The rehabilitation (projected for the end of the 10th year of use) had been written into the 2004 agreements between the two countries, and just like the construction, the rehabilitation project is being funded entirely by grant aid from the donor country.

The Ministry of Public Telecommunications is expected to invite the local media to tour the facilities in February.