Roraima Governor to advance road to Brazil talks
GOVERNOR Neuvo Campos of the Brazil state of Roraima is likely to visit Guyana next month to advance talks on the long-awaited Guyana-Brazil road link, Works and Transportation Minister, Mr Anthony Xavier said yesterday. Xavier told the Chronicle the Guyana Government was inviting Campos here for talks between October 9 and 15. "We are inviting him to advance talks on the road and other related matters," he said. President Bharrat Jagdeo and Brazil President Fernando Henrique Cardoso discussed completing the road link between Guyana and Brazil during the recent summit of South American Presidents in the Brazil capital, Brasilia. Mr Jagdeo told reporters here he reassured Cardoso of "my government's commitment to complete the road link between Guyana and Brazil." They also discussed the follow-up process from a meeting in the Roraima capital Boa Vista in April this year on cooperation between Guyana and Roraima in trade and investment, transportation, culture and tourism. "There has always been a sense of urgency" on completing the Guyana-Brazil road, Mr Jagdeo said, noting that the government has been allocating some $50M annually on maintaining and upgrading the road between Linden to Lethem, part of the Guyana-Brazil highway. Xavier said Guyana has sent a draft border land agreement to the Brazil Foreign Ministry and was awaiting a response. The agreement covers free movement of vehicles between Bon Fim on the Brazil border and Lethem and the removal of taxes for traders doing business in Brazil, he said. Campos has urged faster progress in the negotiations on the road linking Brazil and Guyana. "I am not satisfied at the rate of the negotiations...I will like them to work faster. We need to work together", he told the Chronicle in an interview in Boa Vista last month. "I need to know if Guyana wants this road because we have to link our efforts to get Brasilia moving on this", he said. Campos said he and Guyana's Ambassador to Brazil, Mrs Cheryl Miles and Xavier should work together to get the talks moving in Brasilia. The Brazil Foreign Ministry based in the Itamaraty Palace in Brasilia is the critical player in the process because the federal government is to provide funds for the project. Dr Jose Paulo Silveria, Secretary of Planning and Strategic Evaluation from the Ministry of Planning, the Budget and Management, told the Chronicle in Brasilia, moving forward depends on cooperation between the two governments. He said that under the federal plan, Brasilia is allocating resources in the federal budget to pave the road between Bon Fim on the border Takutu River and Boa Vista. Much of that road has been completed and large air conditioned buses run daily on schedule between the two points. Mr Jagdeo said Guyana expects to complete within two years current negotiations with the European Union for financing to finish the road but pointed out that a deep water harbour was essential to the plan to link Roraima and other northern Brazil states to the Guyana coast. The President said the government was in discussions with a private company interested in developing "a corridor of infrastructure" from the border with Brazil to the bauxite mining town of Linden and on to a deep water harbour in the Berbice River. This will include a road and rail link, he said. The discussions are on a project that could be privately financed, the President reported. "Guyana has always seen itself as a bridge between the English-speaking Caribbean and the countries on the South American continent", he said. He noted that on the proposed integration infrastructure which the historic summit in Brasilia covered, "there is no doubt that much potential exists for the development of projects in the areas of transportation, energy and telecommunications." "...Guyana is strategically placed to become a transshipment point for the northern states of Brazil (and) supports the view expressed by the meeting that the countries of South America should focus as a matter of priority on building connecting links for the circulation of goods, services and people." After his talks with Cardoso, Mr Jagdeo told a news conference in Brasilia that Guyana also intends to work with private companies in Brazil and the federal and state government in that country to "make this (road) project feasible". Noting that a deep water harbour is also needed, he added, "we are looking at some form of private-public partnership in creating an integrated corridor of infrastructure using Guyana as a transshipment point". (SHARIEF KHAN)
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