Government studying Beal's revised proposals - PM Stabroek News February 15, 2000 Prime Minister Sam Hinds hopes that a deal with Beal Aerospace Technologies will be clinched soon. Speaking with Stabroek News last Thursday, Hinds said that the company had forwarded revised copies of the various agreements necessary to seal a deal to the government. "If on checking this version of the agreement (it) reflects what we intended at the last discussions, this would be the final document we need," Hinds said. He also said he was very "hopeful" that a deal will be entered into shortly. Beal Aerospace Technologies has expressed interested in making Guyana a launch site for commercial satellites and is negotiating an agreement with the government to this effect. The company has earmarked a site in the Waini District and has in its possession soil tests to show which area will be most feasible to establish such a launch site. However, since it held a public forum in Guyana in December, not much has been heard about the local project. The company since then pulled out of St Croix, the US Virgin Islands and will be assembling and launching temporarily out of Cape Canaveral, Florida. Wade Gates, Beal's corporate affairs director, told the Guyana Forum in written correspondence recently that the company plans to launch rockets from Guyana by 2002 or later. That is because actual implementation of the project will take a while as an Environmental Impact Assessment study will first need to be done and approved by the Environmental Protection Agency.