Finance Minister Winston Jordan will be meeting with the Chinese Ambassador to Guyana, Zhang Limin later today to sign an agreement on the provision of a Concessional Loan between the Government of the People’s Republic of China and the Government of the Cooperative Republic of Guyana for “the East Coast Demerara (ECD) Public Road Widening and Improvement Project.”
The loan valued at RMB Yuan 314, 000,000 (Three hundred and fourteen million Renminbi Yuan) or US$45,561,400 will be signed at the Finance Ministry.
The project was initially conceived by the former People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) administration in 2011 and preliminary works for the installation of concrete drains and sand filings were executed. The initiative was aimed at expanding the road network from Better Hope to Belfield. However, works were stalled for quite some time, as the government approached China’s Exim bank for funding to complete the expansion.
The former administration, surmising that funding from China would be imminent, went ahead and invited Expressions of Interest (EOI) from Chinese companies to bid for the project. It was disclosed that the then Cabinet granted it’s no objection for the contract to be awarded to China Railway for US$42.7M . With this new line of financing, it is expected that the administration would go the same route and be inclined to have the project undertaken by a Chinese company.
Stop widening roads that run through villages and towns…….design and build a new Highway from Georgetown to Rosignol with connecting roads to the existing roadway.