Finance Minister Dr. Ashni Singh says that there is no immediate alternative to the Amaila Falls Hydro Power Project within the next decade.
During his remarks at an Economic Forum this morning [Wednesday August 14] at the International Conference Center, Dr. Singh said that “the chatter of other options is merely romanticizing…it is a fantasy.”
According to Dr. Singh, it will take years to put together a project of this magnitude. The Finance Minister said that Guyana has before it, an immediate solution to fix the energy issue which the country is facing.
“We have before us for the first time in the country’s history an achievable solution to this problem in the Amaila Falls Hydropower Project. This solution has been studied extensively…this is a project that has the support and involvement of one of the world’s preeminent institutional investors – the Blackstone Group – this is a project that has the support and involvement of major developmental partners…” Dr. Singh said.
He told the gathering that this generation has the responsibility to ensure that this opportunity is not taken away from them.
Additionally, Chairman of the Private Sector Commission, Ron Webster also reiterated his call for the detractors to rethink their position and to support the project.
According to Webster, “We have tended to listened to those experts who know little about power generation and less about the conversion from kilowatts to megawatts.”
