President Ramotar says … Guyana’s developmental thrust well on target

- in spite of the opposition’s shenanigans

Written by Priya Nauth

Saturday, 24 March 2012 23:42

Source - Guyana Chronicle

President Donald Ramotar

PRESIDENT Donald Ramotar has said he is optimistic that with the implementation of Government’s plans to transform Guyana, the country has a bright future ahead of it.

He made the observation during a press conference Friday at the Office of the President on Shiv Chanderpaul Drive, here in the city. He was at the time responding to queries about the proposed Marriott Hotel project in terms of how its coming on stream would affect occupancy rates here.

Carefully choosing his words, the President said: “Every time I go, I am always told there is full occupancy in most of these places.”

The project at reference is a public/private investment of over US$50M to bring a major international brand to Guyana; create hundreds of jobs in the construction phase and beyond, when it becomes operational; and significantly raise the standards of the local hospitality industry. Government is merely acting as a catalyst.

The project has an estimated capital cost of US$58M, and funding will be in the form of debt and equity, with Government’s contribution being one-third of the funding.

Under the terms of the design-build contract executed with Shanghai Construction Group (SCG), construction was began in early March 2012. Completion and start of commercial operations of the hotel and entertainment complex is expected two years thereafter, in February 2014.

In light of these and other developments, the President is encouraging each and every Guyanese to look ahead and on the bright side. “…look to the future,” he said. “Look to the possibilities that this country has; look at what will be happening in this country if we find oil, and I hope we will find oil.”

Noting all the possibilities ahead of us, the President said: “Should we only build for what we have at present? Should we not try to anticipate our future, and prepare for that? That is what precisely we are doing.”

In terms of how he feels about the prospect of the finding of oil in commercial quantities here and the coming of Marriott and other spin-off activities, he said: “I myself am confident of the future; confident that we have a very bright future ahead of us; that we have a lot of gains to make in the future, and we have to have the infrastructure for them.”

“We have to have the infrastructure in this country to deal with what I anticipate would be a very bright future ahead of us, once we can implement all of our plans,” he iterated.

As to how he felt about recent statements made by A Partnership for National Unity (APNU), President Ramotar declared: “Clearly, these people are trying to rewrite history; clearly, they are trying to hide from their past.”

He made the point that such pronouncements were strange coming from a party like APNU that helped destroy this country, and “made us move from being the most developed country in this region in 1964, to the most backward country by 1992.”

Clearly incensed by APNU’s temerity, he said: “These people, who have the worst history of corruption, (are)… making accusations against this Government… Clearly, what they are trying to do now is to affect the progress that this country is making.”

Noting that among the advancements of which he spoke were the construction of a hydroelectric plant; completion of the road from the Coast to Lethem; a new deep-water harbour; and a proper hotel of international standards that would make Guyana a destination for important conferences, he said:

“This seems to be the target of these attacks that we are seeing today in the press.”
Asked how he felt about having been in office for more than 100 days, and what he’s achieved thus far, President Ramotar said:

“I (would) say that we are on target. I campaigned in this election on continuity, particularly on some of the major projects, which, in my view, have the possibility of really transforming our country, and I am working strongly towards that.”

He concluded by saying: “I would say (that) generally, I am where I think we should be at this point in time.”

Last Updated on Saturday, 24 March 2012 23:45