The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), in a bold step to contribute to development in Guyana, has funded the feasibility study for the construction of a glass bottle manufacturing plant.
This was revealed by President of the Guyana Manufacturing and Services Association (GMSA) Ramsay Ali, during the organisation’s mid-year dinner on Thursday evening.
According to Ali, the study has already begun to determine the viability of the project and results are expected within the next two months.
“We approached the IDB [and they] said yes, we are going to fund a feasibility study in Guyana for glass manufacturing. I am pleased to say that that study has started and we have a timeline for about two months before we could get the results of that study,” Ali stated.
According to Ali the establishment of such a factory will greatly benefit local businesses and reduce the cost spent to import glass from Trinidad and Tobago. He explained that since Trinidad and Tobago are the producers of glass for the entire Caribbean if we were to import glass from any other country, we would have to pay the Common External Tariff (CET).
“Some of us are old enough to know there used to be a glass bottle factory here years ago. What happened was there’s such a facility in Trinidad and what happened is that they approached CARICOM…and said they can produce all the glass in the Caribbean and if you were to import glass from anywhere else you will have to pay the CET.”
“We have the two largest beverage companies in the GMSA, Banks DIH [and] Demerara Distilleries Limited, plus we have mid-size companies like Ricks and Sari and all of our smaller agro-processors who use a lot of glass,’ he shared.
Ali added that it is more logical to implement this project now rather than ten years ago given the consumption of energy required for such a facility.
“My opinion is that given what is going to take place with energy in this country in a very short while, that project would make much more sense than if we were to look at it ten years ago because of the consumption of energy for such a facility.”
According to the United Nations COMTRADE database on international trade, Guyana’s Imports from Trinidad and Tobago of Glass and glassware were valued at US$2.67 million in 2022.
