–President Ali announces
PRESIDENT, Dr. Irfaan Ali on Friday announced a $900 million revolving fund for Guyana’s forestry sector.
The head-of-state made the disclosure during a stakeholder meeting at the Guyana Forestry Commission (GFC), where he pledged government’s commitment to working with forestry stakeholders to increase productivity, and to foster sustainable forest management practices.
“Through a partnership with the Guyana Forestry Commission, we will set up a committee to make sure persons are sticking to what is expected of them,” the President said.
“We will set aside $300 million in a revolving fund from the government, and Demerara Bank has agreed with me to set aside $600 million to back the $300 million. That is $900 million at an interest rate of, unbelievably, four per cent,” he added.
President Ali explained that the fund will create room for a significant increase in production, further building the market.
“We are now going to unleash $900 million to the market to step up production, so that we can meet the demand, especially for the valued-added product, and to give this sector a real boost, because we are very concerned about the production level, and where it should be to meet our demands in the market we are building.”
The meeting was attended by the Board of Directors and Senior Management of the Guyana Forestry Commission, along with small and large forest concession holders, sawmillers, small loggers, and value-added forest producers to discuss opportunities within the sector, and ways to increase production.
Stakeholders within the forestry sector were also urged by Natural Resources Minister Vickram Bharrat to increase production, while the government will continue to enhance access to forest concessions through improved infrastructure and investment incentives.
In its mid-year report, the Ministry of Finance had reported that the country’s forestry sector had grown by an estimated 47.1 per cent in the first half of the year, largely on account of significant growth in log production.
According to the report, at the end of June, 203,220 cubic metres of timber products were produced, compared with 137,040 cubic metres at the end of June last year, driven by higher-than-anticipated production of logs.
Log production is up 59.8 per cent, when compared with the position at the end of the first six months of 2021, following a substantive increase in production from large concessions.
Additionally, the local demand for primary lumber has also increased year-on-year, driven by ramped up construction activity countrywide. The report further stated that with log production slowing as concessionaires’ quotas are used up, the expected growth rate for the sector is holding steady at 13.5 per cent for 2022.
