The Mayor of Guyana’s second most populous municipality, the town of Linden, will on Saturday February 4, apprise Lindeners in New York City of plans to twin Newark City, New Jersey with his town, as well as on his agenda to create jobs and redevelop the industrial town.
According to a statement issued by the Caribbean Guyana Institute for Democracy (CGID), Mayor Carwyn Holland is expected to be joined by his Newark counterpart, Guyana’s Consul General to New York, Mrs. Barbara Atherly and Brooklyn elected officials, at a town hall meeting on Saturday, February 4, 2017, in Brooklyn.
He will also meet with Newark City officials on Monday, February 6, to finalize twinning arrangements. Mayor Holland will be accompanied by Ms. Tandika Miller, CEO of the Linden Enterprise Network (LEN), a development fund which provides capital for business creation and expansion in Linden.
In a statement Wednesday, Mayor Holland said “Twinning Newark with Linden is consequential for Linden’s economic renaissance and development. This City to City partnership will foster new cultural and economic cooperation; create new prospects for business investments to sustain Linden’s economic viability, help create much needed jobs for young people and engender social transformation and prosperity for Lindeners. I’m excited about this historic prospect.”
During the 2016 celebration of Guyana’s 50th Anniversary of Independence, Newark Mayor, Ras Baraka, embraced a vision for twinning Newark with Linden, following representations from Mr. Bernard Rollins, Chairman of Newark’s Caribbean Commission, and other Guyanese Leaders in New Jersey. Mayor Baraka’s assent, harbingered negotiations for a City to City partnership to foster the mutual development interests of Newark and Linden. The ceremonial twinning is envisioned for February or March 2017.
Guyana’s second town other than its capital, Georgetown City, Linden is also the capital of Guyana’s Upper Demerara-Berbice Administrative region. The industrial, bauxite based town, which hugs the Demerara River, became a municipality in 1970, the same year Guyana became a Republic.
Newark, New Jersey’s largest population center, with a population of 278,000, is the 70th largest city in the US and the second largest in the New York metropolitan area. Newark is 8 miles from central Manhattan, New York City, and houses the seat of the Essex county government. Newark is also a main air, shipping and railway hub in the US. The City and its surrounding towns have a significant Caribbean population. Neighboring East Orange is home to the second largest Guyanese population in the US.
Linden, which has the highest unemployment rate in Guyana, experienced a painful economic recession when precipitous reductions in world market prices for bauxite triggered a significant contraction of the bauxite industry in the 1990s.
Holland, 32, who was elected in 2015 by pushing a pro-growth agenda, unveiled a plan to attract large-scale new business and manufacturing companies to generate employment for thousands of unemployed Lindeners. A highway from Brazil to Linden is under construction.
