24 December 2008
The Inter American Development Bank set aside more than $900,000 to conduct a feasibility study into the road linking Guyana with Brazil.
From International Herald Tribune (Dec. 23, 2008)
GEORGETOWN -- Guyana has temporarily shelved plans to build paved roads linking the country to neighbouring Brazil and Venezuela, President Bharrat Jagdeo said Monday, citing a lack of funds.
He said Guyana would go ahead with building the roads only if grants or concessionary low-interest financing became available.
"Right now, it's not a high priority of mine because we don't have the resources," the president said of a planned highway from Bochinche, Venezuela, to Guyana.
He also said that the proposed road from the bauxite-mining town of Linden to Lethem, a township in southern Guyana near the border with Brazil, would not be profitable.
"Even the road to Brazil, when we look at the economic rate of return and the internal rate of return, it is not high enough to justify displacing other projects when you have limited funds," said Jagdeo, a Russian-trained economist.
Reluctant to describe the Guyana-Brazil as a low priority, he said that if Brazilian businesses recognised the need for the road they could finance the construction of the artery through the jungle.
"It's always on the front-burner, but it will only be a reality if we can raise funds that are sufficiently concessional or grant resources to do at this point in time, unless we have a large company that sees the road as essential to their business plan that is bringing down the cost of transporting their goods," the president said.
The Inter American Development Bank had set aside more than $900,000 to conduct a feasibility study into the road linking Guyana with Brazil.
Jagdeo said his government is hoping that carbon credits and compensation from the rich countries to keep Guyana's vast tropical rainforest intact would generate sufficient funds to build roads and other major infrastructure projects.
The Guyana government's pronouncement that it does not have enough funds to build the road to Brazil came as Brazilian soldiers put the finishing touches on a bridge across the Takatu River, which forms the border between the two countries.
Georgetown and Brasilia have already signed an agreement anticipating the construction of a road for Brazilian exporters to take advantage of cheaper and shorter access to the Atlantic Ocean through Guyana.
Guyanese trucks and buses now use an earthen trail to shuttle passengers as well as food, fuel and other supplies back and forth across the Brazilian border.