A joint Guyana/Brazil technical team has conducted some initial assessments on the road from Lethem to Linden and is due to present its preliminary report to the relevant Guyanese and Brazilian authorities within a fortnight.
The objective of the initial assessment relates to paving the Linden-Lethem stretch of road through a loan financed by Brazil. Once the work on the bridge over the Takutu River is completed, it is expected that travel and trade between Guyana and Brazil would be enhanced, however, the state of the gravel road is a source of concern for Brazilian businesses which are expected to use a seaport in Guyana.
Meanwhile work on the Takutu Bridge resumed at the end of March and it is anticipated it would be completed by year end or early in January next year, Brazilian Ambassador to Guyana, Arthur VC Meyer told the Stabroek News. The construction is being undertaken by several Brazilian companies under the supervision of the engineering corps of the Brazilian army. The Brazilian National Congress approved the sum of US$3 million or Rs$6 billion for the Brazilian Ministry of Transportation to resume the works which had been halted five years ago due to financial irregularities.
Meyer told Stabroek News last week that the joint technical team had held meetings with Guyana's Minister of Transport and Hydraulics Robeson Benn; Minister of Foreign Affairs Dr Rudy Insanally; Minister of Finance, Dr Ashni Singh; and representatives of the European Union and the Inter-American Development Bank.
The Brazilian technical team included two engineers and a representative from the Brazilian Ministry of External Affairs, while the Guyana team was led by Minister Benn. The team travelled to Georgetown from Lethem by road.
Last week's meeting of the joint technical team was a follow-up to bilateral talks between President Bharrat Jagdeo and Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva during the Rio Summit held at Turkeyen, Georgetown in early March.
During the meeting, Lula had indicated the Brazilian government was open in principle to financing the paving of the road through a loan from the state-owned Brazilian National Economic and Social Development Bank, and Jagdeo had reacted positively to the initiative.
Apart from the importance of the bridge to Guyana's economy, including the trade in rice and sugar, Meyer noted that the road would be very important for Brazil since it would provide access to markets for exports from Brazil's northern province through Guyana's ports.
The announcement that Bon Fim on the Brazilian border would be activated as a port of entry in the near future has been welcomed by the Guyana government and the local private sector. It is expected that this would facilitate Guyana's exports under the Guyana/Brazil Partial Scope Agreement which has been extended to 2008.
In September 2006, Jagdeo told the media when asked about plans for paving the road, that it could not be paved in the short term unless there were a substantial investment flow accruing from the project, otherwise it would not be feasible.
He had said that he could not spend millions of dollars on infrastructure in circumstances where the rate of return per year was very minimal. "You can't spend US$200 million on paving a road that earns you US$500,000 a year. Normally the rate of return should be about 10% so you have to earn about US$20 million a year and that is at the low end to justify that if government is financing it," he had said.
While the government might be looking at an annual 10% rate of return on the investment, he said that if the private sector were to finance the paving of the road they would be looking at an annual rate of return close to 25 per cent.
He had said that when he looked at the traffic flow on that road he preferred "to keep my money in the bank." However, he said that if the development of the road could be linked to bigger projects such as exporting soya products or goods from the free trade area of Manaus, or if it were linked to the plans for the development of northern Brazil then it would become feasible.
He had also said there was no immediate plan to build a bridge at the Kurupukari crossing. A pontoon ferries passengers and vehicles across the Essequibo river.