(Ministry of Agriculture- April 21, 2016) - Agriculture Minister Noel Holder is currently engaged in a series of meetings with representatives of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) to venture into establishing an all-weather road from Guyana to Brazil.
During one of the meetings, Minister Holder pointed to the tremendous potential the country possesses, but is limited by access to markets.
βGuyana is the bread basket of the Caribbean, but the problem of getting our commodities out of Guyana is a major issue,β Minister Holder stated.
Mr. Peter Cardebring, an economist from HPC Hamburg Port Consulting GmbH, pointed to some of the direct and indirect effects such a project poses to businesses. Such a road would be critical for both parties opening up tremendous trade relations. With the completion of the road project, new markets will be established, in addition to expanding existing ones.
Also present at the meeting was the General Manager for the Guyana Marketing Corporation, Ms Ida Sealey. She disclosed that, in terms of agro-processing, the road would be a tremendous game changer since packaging material can be sourced from Brazil to further develop the agro-processing industry.
The team consisted of Ms. Sophie Makonnen, the country Representative for IDB, Peter Cardebring and Mr. Timothy McIntosh from Technical Expertise Durable Solutions. They are expected to continue consultations with the Ministers of Finance, Business and Public Infrastructure over the next month.