EDITOR’S NOTE: In February, #InfrastruCaribe kicked off its series on transportation infrastructure with edition 2021-02-26 on roadways. This month, we do the same. But, roadways may now be as much as three parts. This edition is on roadways in Guyana. You are reminded that additional content may be found on our twitter feed and it is advisable to avail yourself of it.

Our headline taken from Kaieteur News reads: “China, Guyana Presidents Discuss Belt And Road Initiative”. A number of countries benefit from this facility of multimillion-dollar soft loans for the construction of roads, bridges, airports, deep water ports and other infrastructure. However, none of the projects discussed here or on twitter are beneficiaries at this time.

Some western countries regard this initiative as nothing more than a debt trap. Questioned about this, the government’s senior Finance Minister, remarked, “Whoever we borrow from, whenever and whosever we borrow from, we are firmly committed to maintaining fiscal and debt sustainability.”

Nevertheless, five of the nine firms prequalified to bid on the the new four-lane Demerara Bridge are Chinese. A field of 54 firms expressed interest and 44 completed the registration process. Pre-qualified bidders have been instructed to quote on two contract options: Design/Build/Finance, and alternatively Design/Build/Finance/Operate.

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