Senior government and private sector officials on Wednesday used the opening session of the August 14-15 National Economic Forum to continue to express concern over what they say may be an irretrievably lost opportunity to secure a hydropower energy source for the country.
This week’s third National Econo-mic Forum was convened in the shadow of the country’s failure to secure parliamentary unanimity for the execution of the project and President Donald Ramotar, in his feature address at the opening ceremony at the International Convention Centre, said that the failure of the parliamentary parties to rise above partisan interests had dealt the country “a very serious economic blow.”
Finance Minister Ashni Singh whose presentation preceded President Ramotar’s told the forum that there was “no alternative” to the Amaila Falls project that would be available to us “in the next ten years.” Alluding to a previous failure (the Upper Mazaruni Hydro Electric Project) to secure the setting up of a hydro electric power generation system, Singh said that that had resulted in four decades of “retarded development” for Guyana. Asserting that the Amaila Falls hydro project represents “an achievable solution” to “the single biggest impediment to accelerated private sector growth in the country”, Singh told the forum that Guyana must “ensure that Amaila happens”.
Meanwhile, the local private sector also weighed in on the side of the Amaila Falls hydroelectric project with Chairman of the Private Sector Commis-sion (PSC) Ronald Webster asserting that the execution of the Amaila Falls Project could result in the re-direction – possibly to the University of Guy-ana – of the subsidy which the public treasury currently affords the Guyana Power and Light Company. The PSC Chairman called for a “rethink” of positions that would allow for a common position on the Amaila Falls Project.
Convened against the backdrop of the theme Promoting Economic Growth and Development Through Innovation, Diversification and Partnership, the forum was scheduled to wrap-up yesterday.
