Showcasing Essequibo
Editorial
Guyana Chronicle
October 31, 2003
Essequibo comes into its own this evening when people of all walks of life from all over the country - and outside of it - assemble at the Anna Regina Community Center ground for a fair that promises to showcase part of Guyana's largest county.
The Essequibo Coast isn't totally representative of the entire county. For one thing, Pomeroon/Supenaam (Region 2) is only one of five administrative regions in the mighty Essequibo.
For another, most of Guyana's population - some 95 percent - lives on the country's coastal strip, which altogether covers an area of approximately 80 miles long and 20 miles wide.
But because it is more easily accessible to transportation than, say, Upper Takatu/Upper Essequibo, the largest of Essequibo's five administrative regions, Region 2 offers a vantage point for the staging of an exhibition on the Essequibo.
The fair, which continues into tomorrow, is being convened at a time when increasing numbers of Guyanese are calling on central government to take bolder steps to propel socioeconomic growth.
Of all the places in Guyana, the Essequibo provides compelling evidence that it has the potential for transforming the country into the era of modernization and prosperity.
The county is richly endowed with rivers that can provide all Guyana with enough electricity, hydro-electricity, to herald industrialization.
International consultants studying the feasibility of plans for a Mazaruni Hydro-electric Scheme affirmed that the scheme would have generated enough energy to operationalize an aluminum smelter, a sugar refinery, and a string of manufacturing industries all over the country.
The springs and rivers in the Essequibo can provide us with raw material for bottled water industries, the county's "backdam" has a great expanse of timberland and a long list of natural resources such as gold, diamond and other precious stones, and the intermediate savannahs offer a multiplicity of opportunities for agro- and non-farm industries.
The cooler areas of the Essequibo have the potential to grow some of the temperate-zone foods - onions, Irish potatoes, and broccoli among them - that we now import.
The Essequibo is also home to some of the highly popular hammocks and handicrafts that Guyana produces.
We anticipate that President Jagdeo, who is expected to speak at the opening of Essequibo Nite, will outline plans by government to facilitate private enterprise investments in the county.
We know GO-INVEST is actively pursuing foreign direct investments in the intermediate savannahs.
In helping to draft a project profile on the intermediate savannahs, the Organization of American States (OAS) emphasized that as a nation competing for investment dollars, Guyana needed to offer special incentives to potential investors.
The President's tasks in Essequibo include a meeting with rice farmers at Vilverden and the commissioning of a pineapple factory at Mainstay/Whyaka. Both occasions are significant in that they underline the importance that government attaches to interfacing with stakeholders and to identifying with efforts businesspeople are making to widen the country's economic base.
At this juncture of the country's development when people are clamoring for the speedier satisfaction of their needs and desires, Essequibo stands out as the county that can fast-forward Guyana's drive onto the road to progress and prosperity.