–PSC Chairman

CHAIRMAN of the Private Sector Commission (PSC), Paul Cheong has said that the highly-anticipated Amaila Falls Hydropower Project (AFHP) will be a “huge benefit” to businesses operating in the manufacturing and industrial sectors.

He shared the foregoing sentiments during an interview on the National Communications Network (NCN) on Thursday afternoon.
“Energy is a very important aspect of business and any household; energy costs are a component of your costs,” Cheong said. “To be competitive, you need to be efficient, and you also need your costs to be as low as possible. And we see this project as a huge benefit to the private sector,” he added.

And besides significantly reducing energy costs in households, thereby putting money back into the pockets of all Guyanese, he said, “It would also help to make other manufacturing entities or products that currently face hardships feasible, because of the current energy costs. We expect that with this project coming on board, and the realisation of this project, that there will be a big boost; a big boom in the private sector, in terms of manufacturing exports which would lead to your products becoming competitive on the international market.”

Notably, the project will add 165 megawatts (MW) of energy to the grid, with construction projected to begin in 2022 and be completed in 2025.

Just recently, Cabinet granted its ‘no objection’ for the Office of the Prime Minister to engage China Railway Group Limited to construct the Amaila Falls Hydropower Project (AFHP), based on a Build-Own-Operate-Transfer (BOOT) model, whereby the company will supply electricity to the Guyana Power and Light (GPL) Inc. at a cost not exceeding US$0.07737 per KWH, and provide the entire equity required by the project, and undertake all the risks associated with it.