PRESIDENT Bharrat Jagdeo said yesterday that, during his recent official visit to Turkey, he conducted several sessions with the leadership of the multilateral financing institutions, discussing regional matters and the financing of Guyana’s hydropower project.

He returned home Sunday from the 2009 Annual Meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, Bretton Woods institutions.

Speaking at a press conference in the Guyana International Conference Centre, Liliendaal, East Coast Demerara, he reminded that, before he left, he had indicated he planned to do so.

Also current Chairman of CARICOM, President Jagdeo said, whilst in the Turkish capital, Istanbul, he took the opportunity to engage in several bilaterals, including with the Head of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).

He said the meeting with the IDB top man was largely about putting together the finance for the hydropower.

“As you know, we have been working with a group that went out to tender to develop this project. I had a meeting prior to leaving Guyana with that group. And it seems as though the bid that was done in November of last year…there was a rebid of certain portions because the rate came in very high and it seems as though the pricing now is within the range that we find acceptable,” Mr. Jagdeo stated.

He said the next stage is to secure the funding for such a project, largely, from equity, loans from multilateral institutions and bilateral sources and, maybe, small Government support to the project.

“Since we have had that report about the feasibility of the project and the financial package that it would take to make the project a reality, the next stage is to put together the financing,” President Jagdeo explained.

He disclosed that there will be a meeting in Washington, early next month, to start that process and added: “We hope that, if everything goes well and the financing could be secured, that, sometime mid next year, construction of the hydro may start.”

President Jagdeo said, prior to that, the Government plans to do some work on developing the access road to the site because that will advance the project schedule tremendously.

He reiterated: “This is very important for us and the IDB, since they may provide part of the financing for this project and play a critical role in organising the financing.”

The Head of State said the hard and the soft costs of the hydropower scheme will range between US$500 to US$600M and noted: “It will be an open book system. So it depends on the final costing etc” and is expected to take over three years to complete.

“In my discussions with the President of the IDB, he was gracious enough to offer to host that meeting early next month at the IDB and, hopefully, we will be able to, within a matter of months working with the investors, to secure the financing for this project to move forward,” he said.

President Jagdeo also revealed that, when he met with the Head of the World Bank, they spoke largely about CARICOM related issues and he strongly advocated for more immediate financing for those countries that have suffered much from the financial crisis.

“Unlike Guyana, many of the countries in the Caribbean have been reeling from the loss of revenue, the loss of employment and the general economic dislocation that they have experienced because of the global crisis,” he said.

Debt relief
President Jagdeo spoke, as well, about the need to ensure that these countries have some form of multilateral debt relief.

“It is a message that I have consistently taken to many others,” he said, pointing out that he has spoken to Hilary Clinton (United States Secretary of State) and United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon about it.

“So, the meeting with the World Bank was more advocating on behalf of CARICOM, as my role as Chairman of CARICOM and also as Chairman of the Economic Task Force,” he said.

President Jagdeo said he raised the matter of the impact of the OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development) and the G20 (the Group of 20) classification of many of the region’s jurisdictions explaining: “As countries that may have, maybe, financial tax havens that would encourage the avoidance of taxes on the part of investors from the developed world.”

“Many of our countries had been under either grey or were blacklisted and, if we don’t address this situation quickly, we will see the region suffer even greater consequences because we are going to have a diversion of financial flows from this region to other regions of the world and, you know, many of the Caribbean countries have major offshore financial sectors so these would be affected,” he c contended.

He said he emphasised that point with the President of the World Bank and he has promised to help ensure that these smaller countries have a fair stake in the OECD review of those countries that find themselves on this grey or blacklist.

“So, that went extremely well, too,” President Jagdeo reported.

He said there were many other meetings, including with the Deputy Managing Director of the IMF and he also participated in a high level climate change dialogue event hosted by the President of the World Bank to coincide with the annual meeting.

The dialogue, held under a series of events titled the ‘Bali Dialogue’, brought together senior policymakers from around the world to discuss issues related to climate finance and the role of multilateral development banks.

Among these present were Mr. Yvo de Boer, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Secretariat and representatives of all of the major regional development banks.