Guyana, China sign bilateral cooperation projects deal

Finance Minister Dr Ashni Singh and Chinese Ambassador to Guyana Zhang Limin last Friday signed another agreement on economic and technical cooperation. Under this agreement, the government of the People’s Republic of China will provide RMB¥30,000,000 (equivalent to US$4.8 million or Gy$998 million) for the implementation of bilateral cooperation projects to be agreed upon by the two governments.
In March of this year, a technical co-operation agreement valued at RMB¥30,000,000 (Renminbi Yuan 30 million) was also signed to finance development projects. Recently, in November 2012, the governments of Guyana and the People’s Republic of China signed a concessional loan agreement valued at RMB¥825,000,000 (equivalent to US$130,000,000) for the Cheddi Jagan International Airport Expansion Project. This project entails the construction of a new terminal building, the extension of the runway and the general enhancement of the airport facilities to accommodate larger aircraft and the increasing arrival and departure of passengers.
Another gesture of the continued bilateral co-operation between the two countries resulted in the government of the People’s Republic of China delivering, during January 2012, two new state-of-the-art ferries – MV Kanawan and MV Sabanto to improve river transport between the counties of Demerara and Essequibo.
Over the years, the government and people of Guyana have benefited significantly from a number of interventions from the People’s Republic of China in areas such as health, trade, infrastructure, energy, mining, transport and communication, agriculture, sport and culture among others from the technical cooperation agreement grants.
Larger intervention projects such as the Guyana Power and Light Transmission and Distribution Project which begun in 2010 would assist in strengthening the current electricity network. This project aims to stabilise power supply and reduce production costs through the construction of several substations along the coast together with the installation of transmission lines and fibre-optic cables linking each substation.
During 2011, Guyana received another concessional loan of RMB Yuan 215,000,000 or US$32 million to finance the E-Government project, aimed at improving the communication infrastructure for government ministries and agencies.  This project involves the establishment of a data centre and the construction of  Long Term Evolution (LTE) towers along the coastal belt to provide reliable internet access, the Government Information Agency  (GINA) reported.