By Svetlana Marshall

Backed by a number of its past presidents, the current Executive of the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI) today defended the Chamber’s decision to lobby the US-Exim Bank to approve a US$660M loan to the Government of Guyana to finance part of the US$1.7 Billion Gas-to-Energy Project.

Last Thursday, Vice President, Bharrat Jagdeo said there was no need for Chamber of Commerce to lobby the US Exim-Bank on Government’s behalf, but today the President of the Chamber, Kester Hutson said the 135-year-old organization is standing by its decision, having suffered from high energy costs and unreliable electricity for years.

He said recognizing that “financing is a big challenge,” for the project, the GCCI thought it best to lend its support, by lobbying the US-Exim Bank on behalf of the Government. 

At the press conference today, GCCI Senior Vice President, Richard Rambarran said based on publicly available information on the Gas-to-Energy Project, including a high-level cost benefit analysis, the Chamber is convinced that regardless of where the funds come from to finance the project, it will benefit all Guyanese. 

The main opposition – A Partnership for National Unity + Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) – has raised questions about the cost of the project.

“We believe that the cost of the project is in alignment with the benefits that will redound not just to the private sector but the wider citizenry,” Rambarran said.

Mr. Rambarran rejected the notion that due to the high cost of the project, the Government would find itself having to subsidize the operations of the gas plant at Wales, to achieve the 50% reduction in the cost of electricity. 

He said based on an analysis of the project done by the Chamber of Commerce, the project will significantly bring down the cost of doing business in Guyana, and place local businesses at a competitive advantage due to reduced electricity costs.

“We as a country needs industrialization. We as a country need to ensure that we are able to produce a heavy industry component or back bone for our economy. For far too long, we have only had the dichotomy of agriculture and services, and we have been missing a very critical link of manufacturing in Guyana. Industrialization, and particularly looking at petrochemicals that can come as peripherals to that gas conversion plant and to the gas-to-energy project, spells a number of benefits that will have a tremendous multiplier effect in the economy,” Rambarran said. 

Former President of the GCCI, Clinton Urling, also offered his support to the project, telling reporters, that for far too long Guyanese have had to battle with power outages. 

“Just recently, we had a failure of the electrical system in Guyana. Numerous blackouts every day, we had emergency meetings with policy makers. This initiative, once executed correctly, it brings down the cost but also simultaneously ensures that we have reliable electricity, which is something an outsider investor is looking for, and domestic investors,” he said. 

Junior Vice President, Gavin Ramsoondar, Immediate Past President, Timothy Tucker, Secretary Kathy Smith and past presidents Komal Ramnauth, and Nicholas Deygoo also defended the project. 

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