— Economic Affairs Under Secretary says, highlights country’s unique position to shrink shipping delays
THE United States (U.S.) has identified logistics and transport infrastructure as a major pillar of its emerging economic partnership with Guyana, with Washington backing plans to position the country as a regional hub linking global markets.
Speaking during a media engagement at the United States (U.S) Embassy here in Georgetown, U.S. Under Secretary of State for Economic Affairs Jacob Helberg said improved roads and new technologies could allow Guyana to unlock its own natural resources, while also serving as a gateway for trade out of northern Brazil and the wider Caribbean.
“We talked about ways that infrastructure investments, especially in roads and potentially autonomous trucking technology, can actually be catalytic to get more Guyanese bauxite on the global market,” Helberg said.
He noted that while Guyana has significant reserves of bauxite and other natural resources, it requires efficient transport links to convert those reserves into offtake agreements and export revenue.
“Guyana can have a lot of natural reserves, but Guyana needs a way to get those reserves into offtake agreements and to market,” he told reporters.
Helberg said earlier discussions with President Dr Irfaan Ali also focused on Guyana’s potential role as a logistics hub for northern Brazil, particularly for cargo destined for the Panama Canal.
“And so that led to a discussion on logistics and ways that Guyana can actually be a logistics hub for northern Brazil, which densely populated into the northern part of South America in order to allow ships to go to Panama, much more efficiently than the current rep today, that currently forces that trade in northern Brazil to go through a really substantial, multi-week detour.”
According to Helberg, enhanced connectivity through Guyana could shrink time delays “by several orders of magnitude” making exports from the interior of South America more competitive and boosting throughput at Guyanese ports.
He later broadened the vision, describing Guyana as a prospective “22nd century logistics corridor” powered by artificial intelligence and automation.
“We talked about logistics, which we really view as a very promising sector, connecting South America to the Caribbean Ocean through Guyana, and making Guyana a logistical corridor, using AI technology to make it a 22nd century logistics corridor through AI and automation,” Helberg said.
Just last week, Senior Minister in the Office of the President with responsibility for Finance, Dr. Ashni Singh, held talks with senior officials of the United States International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) as the government continues to pursue expanded international support for major national infrastructure and energy projects.
The meeting took place on the margins of the SelectUSA Investment Summit in Maryland, United States, where Singh engaged the DFC’s Chief Policy Officer, Caroline Vik, and her delegation on areas of potential collaboration to support Guyana’s development agenda.
During the engagement, Singh outlined the government’s priority investment projects, which he said are aimed at transforming Guyana into a regional logistics and industrial hub.
Among the flagship initiatives highlighted were the proposed deep-water port along the Berbice River, a major road link connecting northern Brazil to Guyana’s Atlantic coast, and the development of an industrial complex powered by the ongoing Gas-to-Energy project.
