Chief Investment Officer and CEO of the Guyana Office for Investment (GO-Invest) Dr Peter Ramsaroop has debunked claims being made by Georgetown Mayor Ubraj Narine that his Office is responsible for the quashing of a major investment project in Georgetown.
In a statement posted to social media on March 30, Mayor Narine claimed that Dr Ramsaroop, being aware of the Stabroek Market Re-Development project, had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with one of the private investors who was part of the initiative. Narine claimed that after the final documents were taken to Cabinet, the plan was rejected.
“I engaged Dr. Peter Ramsaroop – as Head of GOINVEST – who was fully aware of the said project and went ahead and signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with one of the private investors who were a part of this project. However, when the entire project and documents reached his political masters at Cabinet, they rejected and killed the plan. As such, nothing could be done by the M&CC to improve conditions for the vendors and patrons of the market,” Narine said in his statement, which he has since repeated on other platforms.
Dr Ramsaroop has however denied these claims, noting that GO-Invest never received a proposal from the Georgetown Mayor and City Council regarding the redevelopment of the Stabroek Market area.
Nevertheless, he said an MOU was signed with a private investor who was interested in establishing a hotel in the vicinity of the Stabroek Market.
“A private investor in the city did submit a proposal for a hotel within the city that they would have private land for, so we gave them an MOU for that particular hotel which was never built. In addition, they wanted other lands around the area, which is not government lands per se, endors are on those lands. So, the MOU expired in six months, the investor did not come back with a final proposal for the hotel. The MOU was signed I think in late 2020 when…the government did put out an EOI (Expression of Interest) for hotels within Georgetown. The investor that wanted…to build…in the city never submitted a final proposal because the land that they owned was not enough for what they were proposing,” Ramsaroop clarified.
“Cabinet never got a proposal from me, there was no such proposal. Our Office never signed an MOU with the city, we’ve never had discussions officially with the city on any projects that they would control, we deal with most private investors,” Ramsaroop added.
The Stabroek Market Re-Development project, which was proposed by Narine, pointed to the enhancement and modernisation of the Stabroek Market area.
The project had envisioned the removal of vendors from the streets into better facilities, so as to ensure improved standards.
In addition, the project proposed adequate seating arrangements for citizens awaiting public transportation, as there was expected to be a terminal for buses and a car park for vehicles from all districts.
These facilities were intended to reduce the number of vehicles that are usually parked haphazardly and chaotically on the roads.
