Residents of Linden, Region Ten (Upper Demerara-Berbice) and surrounding communities must start positioning themselves to tap into a market of some 20 million people in Northern Brazil when the all-weather road to Lethem is realised.
The call was made by Public Works Minister Juan Edghill on Tuesday during a meeting with members of the business community in the region.
Linden, he highlighted, will soon have easier access to markets not just in Brazil but also all the way to Suriname and French Guiana.
This is as a result of the ongoing infrastructural projects to connect Moleson Creek to Palmyra, which will then link with a new four-lane bridge over the Berbice River, which will then connect to a new four-lane highway all the way to Sheriff Street which will branch out into various road connections leading to Linden.
“The entire Linden-Soesdyke Highway is being refurbished, reconstructed and rehabilitated. The bridges are being expanded to make sure that pedestrians don’t have to walk on the path of the road, width is being given to ensure if a truck or a vehicle has to park, there is continual two-lane traffic. And added to that, you can use the road day and night because we are installing 2,900 streetlights on the Linden-Soesdyke Highway. When you reach to Linden, what you crossing over on? A toll-free four-lane bridge between Mackenzie and Wismar. And then you start at the Linden-Mabura Road which is under construction…,” he noted.
Edghill explained that the Linden-Lethem all-weather road is divided into three other lots: Mabura Hill to Kurupukari, Kurupukari to Annai and Annai to Lethem.
He said works will soon begin on the Annai-Lethem stretch. From Moleson Creek, there will soon be unhindered travel to Suriname via a bridge over the Corentyne River, Edghill highlighted.
Once these networks are fully completed, Edghill explained that there will be smooth travel from Brazil through Linden all the way to Suriname and French Guiana.
“You know what that means ladies and gentlemen, captains of business, entrepreneurs that are in this room. Twenty million people in Northern Brazil have unhindered access to Guyana, and Guyana businesses have unhindered access to a twenty million market in Northern Brazil. And the traffic will begin to flow,” he outlined.
“So, on that road, people have to get rest stops to the truckers. You have to get restaurants. When people passing through or come to Linden, we got to get more rooms. We got to get service stations. You all following me?…More taxis. We are developing Guyana. And in the development of Guyana, Linden is central…,” Edghill emphasised.
Further, with plans to develop a deepwater harbour at Palmyra, the opportunities will become more abundant, Edghill said.
“Brazil, a landlocked country, where it takes them seven days sometimes 21 days, through the Amazonia, especially when it is dry, it is longer, to get the water to ship their goods, will do an 18- or 24-hour drive to Guyana, put their goods on our waterway to ship it out. So, you are going to be seeing haulers, containers – all [with] products, will be coming through northern Brazil, through Guyana, to the deepwater harbour. Can you imagine the traffic?”
This creates countless opportunities for residents of Linden, the minister pointed out.
“So, if its mango you selling, you gotto start planting more mango trees. Because by time four trucks pass, your basket of mangoes done,” he said.
In further outlining the future that lies ahead, Edghill noted that these opportunities do not happen by chance.
“This is not hodgepodge planning. It is forward thinking,” he said.
With this projected traffic passing through the country, Edghill stressed that citizens must start looking for opportunities that can generate real income.
He referenced a tourism project in Tobago. “One of the biggest things that happens when…tourists come out, they want their hair braids. And when you go on the beach, along the Tobago beach front, people set up with a nice big umbrella…plaiting hair.”
“And you ask the girls who are braiding hair on Tobago beach, how much money they make. Plenty,” he said.
“You know what I am trying to tell you. The time has come when people must stop looking for a high heel shoes job, and a suit job, and a tie job. And you start looking for opportunities where you can make real, real, real, real money,” the minister asserted.
Meanwhile, Edghill assured that the PPP/C government will continue to work with the private sector to ensure their businesses grow.
“There has never been a government that has been so much in partnership with the private sector, to help the private sector to grow, develop, expand, and modernise like the People’s Progressive Party Civic,” Edghill expressed.
He highlighted that, over the last five years, the private sector has benefited from opportunities in “ways unimaginable” such as improved access to financing and a favourable taxation system.
“We’ve put in place the single window system where you don’t have to grease anybody’s palm every place where you go to get a permit. And put in place laws that if after a certain amount of time an application is made and nobody can deal with it, it is deemed granted,” he outlined.
“Because nobody can take your application and dock it until you come up with the money to make them look after it. If the law says if after a certain amount of days and you don’t get back nothing, it is deemed approved. We’ve taken away the bureaucracy.”
Edghill emphasised that the PPP/C understands how to work with the private sector and is able to generate real results.
“All of you knew what percentage you paid for loans to the bank. Just compare what you are paying now. Why is it that we are able to bring down interest rates? Because we are able to work with banks and financial institutions,” he said.
He further highlighted that the PPP/C put in place policy environments to keep money circulating in villages to ensure that the distribution of wealth is not lopsided but among all of the people. For instance, he reminded that “here in Region Ten, with the kind of infrastructure rollout and projects that is taking place, more than $150 billion have been expended in projects…Money circulating in Region Ten. You know what that means? Hotels for the people who’ve got to come and work. Transportation for transportation providers.
Restaurants are getting businesses. Hardware stores…All over everybody, selling.”
The party’s aggressive infrastructure plan for the next five years – with the building out of concrete drains in every community – will ensure this circulation of money continues, he assured.
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