Head of the Guyana Office for Investment (Go-Invest) Geoffrey Da Silva, marking the first time that a government official has publicly commented on the sale of Buddy’s International Hotel, yesterday noted that it was US$15 million and not US$25 million that it was sold for to a Turkish investor.
This newspaper had reported in Tuesday’s edition that the hotel was sold for the latter price. Stabroek News confirmed with the investor yesterday that the purchase price was US$15M.
At a press conference called yesterday on the story, Da Silva urged the Guyana Press Association (GPA) to investigate where and when the interview was done. He said he doubted whether Turkish hotelier Sudi Ozkan was interviewed, and was convinced that the man and his wife were probably not in St Maarten at the time.
Stabroek News Editor Anand Persaud yesterday said he was satisfied that the investor was spoken to by the reporter for the report.
Da Silva attacked the article and linked it to a line which he said was being taken by the editors of the Stabroek News, intending to make public only negative things and argued that there was a difference between criticism and negativity.
The article, which was carried in the Tuesday May 13 edition of this newspaper, quoted the investor and his wife extensively on future plans to upgrade the hotel to a five-star property. Earlier efforts by this newspaper to secure a definite word regarding the sale of the hotel from several officials, including Omprakash ‘Buddy’ Shivraj, the developer, proved futile.
Shivraj had denied in February that the hotel was being sold. This denial came after reports that a Surinamese-based investor was interested in the hotel.
Yesterday, Da Silva constantly lamented the article and questioned its authenticity. When quizzed by this newspaper as to whether he had spoken with the investor himself and had received a denial from him that he consented to an interview, Da Silva said he had spoken with “a representative”.
“I am questioning whether this interview was done on this date, at that moment and with that man,” Da Silva said.
The article said Ozkan owns and operates about ten hotel properties around the world. Da Silva was adamant that the man owned over 30 hotel properties in different countries.
Whether the author of the report also spoke to the man’s wife, was another sore point for the Go-Invest head.
The article also spoke of the investor meeting President Bharrat Jagdeo and receiving an assurance that government would back the multi-million dollar investment. This assertion and other important aspects of the report, such as the fact that the investor said he purchased the hotel on the condition that the land would be transferred to him were not denied by Da Silva. However, he said the government had no direct equity stake in the hotel, insisting that it was owned fully by Shivraj.
He later turned his argument to the issue of land concessions, which were granted to Shivraj as well as the developers of the Cacique Hotel, saying that it was not strange for any government to take this route.
“This happens in several countries, not just here. In Barbados and other Caribbean countries, the governments are more generous in this regard. So nothing is unusual about this. So they were given no duty or taxes on furnishings and the land was sold at concessionary prices on completion of the project,” he asserted.
At this point, he interjected that his office was working with another investor in the hotel industry, besides the Marriott, set to make an entrance into the local market. He offered no further information on this.
“Guyana is not a deh bad country and the amount of investors we have in the tourism, mining, wood industry and others is tremendous,” he said.
Freelance reporter Judy Fitzpatrick who is based in St Maarten interviewed Ozkan who had stated that the Buddy’s Hotel could soon bear the Hilton brand if current talks come to fruition and will see massive investment for an upgrade to a five-star property.
Ozkan noted too that once the Hilton decided in favour of its brand being used, he would like to christen the Providence, East Bank Demerara hotel ‘Guyana Hilton’ or ‘Princess Hilton.’According to the report too, the hotelier described the current structure as a two-star hotel and said he planned to spend as much as it took to upgrade it to a five-star hotel.
Another key aspect of the deal with the Guyanese authorities is that a licence would be granted to establish and operate a casino at the property, the report also indicated.
Buddy’s International Hotel was constructed with funding underpinned by several mortgages from the Guyana Bank for Trade and Industry and a $165.7M advance from the Government of Guyana.
Slants
The Go-Invest Head said he intended to ask the GPA to investigate the news item and give its opinion on it.
Da Silva also used the occasion to slam Stabroek News’s Editor-in-Chief David de Caires and Editor Anand Persaud. He accused them of giving only negative slants on investments in the country. He said that while the news agencies had a responsibility to be critical, they were also expected to be balanced and objective. He accused the newspaper of giving the impression that nothing was happening in the country.
“What is the purpose? To be critical is different from being negative.
Negative cannot be seen as being patriotic. You can talk about the bad things happening but be patriotic and balanced,” he said.
He told reporters that when local newspapers carried headlines which only spoke of negative things happening in the country, investors questioned them, making negotiations difficult for him. To this end too, he accused the Stabroek News editors of believing that nothing positive could happen under the current administration.
He said he was not attacking a reporter of the newspaper or the media as a whole, and said he believed Stabroek News had fantastic reporters who wrote very fantastic stories. He said too that he was prepared for any debate with Stabroek News’s editors on the newspaper’s stance when it comes to reportage on investment programmes. He recounted too that he had held a meeting with de Caires and Persaud, where he provided information on over 300 investment projects but to this date, the newspaper had not carried a single article on them. He added that he had compiled an article on tourism and included a list of investment projects but the list was deleted and the rest of the article published.
In a comment, the SN Editor said there is a standing invitation to Go-Invest from Stabroek News to supply information on new investments which could lead to news items in the newspaper or its business section. Persaud said that it had been de Caires’ intention that one such story appear every week but that Go-Invest has thus far not provided the necessary information.
Further, whenever it is asked about individual investors Go-Invest is hardly able to provide helpful details, the Kingston hotel investors being a prime example. Persaud said the open invitation did not mean that every single bit of information tendered by Da Silva would be published. He said the newspaper reserved the right to determine what would be carried and in what form. He said the list that Da Silva had referred to was a case in point as it simply regurgitated previously reported projects without supplying any enlightening details.
Persaud said he was pleased to see that Da Silva had finally held a press conference as he hadn’t done so for a long time but it should have been convened on investments coming to fruition as opposed to the Stabroek News story. He said that the Go-Invest head should aim for at least one press conference every month so that he could furnish all sections of the media with glad tidings of investment projects.
As to his argument that the newspaper was only interested in negativity, Persaud adverted Da Silva’s attention to last Monday’s edition of Stabroek News where the lead story was the announcement of the ground breaking kidney transplant operation to be conducted here in a few weeks. This was followed up with an editorial in last Tuesday’s edition congratulating the government and the health ministry on this development.
He said there would have been even further stories on this matter had Health Minister Dr Leslie Ramsammy made himself available to this newspaper as he had done for the Kaieteur News as evidenced by the report it carried in yesterday’s edition on the kidney transplant plans.
Persaud said that if Da Silva paid closer attention to Stabroek News and its business edition he would most certainly discern a fair attempt to recognize the developments in the country and new investments.
