Brazilian business delegation impressed with Lethem road
Trading prospects seen
Daniel DaCosta
Stabroek News
March 7, 2003
A delegation of Brazilian businessmen left Guyana on Saturday, impressed with the upgrade to the Georgetown/ Lethem road and noticing the existence of potential markets for their exports.
The delegation which comprised fifteen businessmen from the state of Roraima and two television journalists, journeyed to Guyana overland.
According to Executive Director of the Chamber of Commerce of Brazil and Guy-ana, Leila King, “the objective [of the visit] was for them to see for themselves the development of the road,” following the recent signing of the International Road Transport agreement between Guyana and Brazil.
The Chamber of Com-merce of Brazil and Guyana organised the visit and the delegation included King, Francisco Rodrigues, a Federal Deputy of the State of Roraima, Waldiner Da Silva, Representative of the government of Roraima and Bruno Augusto A. Gadelna, Repre-sentative of the town of Bon Fim.
King, who runs Maikan Tourismo, a travel agency based in Boa Vista said the group, and more significantly, Rodrigues, were pleasantly surprised with the improvements made to the road.
Mekdeci Machinery Con-struction Ltd (MMC) is upgrading and maintaining the road including raising road levels, widening surfaces and repairing bridges.
A recent Ministry of Works press release said work so far on the 319-mile road had seen over 100 miles repaired cutting travel time from the coast to Lethem to as little as nine hours.
According to King, the common perception of the road was that it was a terrible trail, “they were not expecting to see it as good as it was.”
She noted that the im-provement would be advantageous when the Brazilian Parliament, where Rodrigues represents the State of Roraima, votes on ratification of the Transport Agreement.
Despite the upgrade King said that there was room for improvement. She explained that Remedio Montessi, a member of the delegation was forced to abort his plans to transport the delegation from Brazil because of the disrepair of the road at some points. King said Montessi, who operates the Amatur Bus company in Brazil, is interested in setting up a transport service from Bon Fim to Georgetown and has been paying close attention to the development of the road.
The delegation left Brazil last week Tuesday in a convoy of eight 4x4 vehicles rather than two buses as Montessi had planned. They stayed overnight at Annai, and arrived in Guyana last week Wednesday.
According to King, the businessmen were interested in supplying their Guyanese counterparts with goods which are of the same quality as those imported from Asian or North American suppliers, but at cheaper prices.
“They don’t want to come to operate businesses here. They want to be your distributors.... The Chamber wants a balance, what you have here, we buy over there and what you sell here, we supply you with from there.”
She said some Guyanese businessmen are already importing goods at cheaper prices from Sao Paolo and Belem.
During their visit the delegation toured Banks DIH’s Thirst Park factory and the Beharry factory.
The only impediment King foresees is the language barrier. Most of the delegation was not fluent in English and she said this would mean a heavy dependence on interpreters.
Meanwhile, the upsurge in crime, especially in George-town had had an adverse effect on tourism, King stated. She said that many of her Brazilian clients were advised of the situation and were unwilling to risk travel.
King said Brazilians were also interested in destinations such as Trinidad, Barbados and Miami, but direct flights to these spots were unavailable. She said Guyana would be a quicker route to these stops as tourists could travel to Georgetown, overnight and then fly onwards.
And in spite of the crime situation, King plans a trip later this year during which she will be bringing tour operators and travel agents from Brazil to visit locations in Guyana. (Andre Haynes)
