GUYANA, JAMAICA OUTPACE T&T

WHILE Trinidad and Tobago is hustling a garage sale for the Pointe-a-Pierre refinery, Guyana and Jamaica are making major industrial leaps.

Over the last few days, Guyana has signed a US $159.9 contract with respect to two power plants, confirmed as having received investments worth US $4.3 billion over the past year, and is completing one of seven new hotels.

Solar-powered homes are being delivered, more people are receiving eye care, and an update was provided on achieving food sovereignty.

This is in addition to a commitment from the European Union to undertake investments in Guyana and other Latin American and Caribbean stages.

Guyana’s President Dr. Irfaan Ali and Jamaica’s Prime Minister Andrew Holness attended the two-day European Union-Community of Latin American and Caribbean States conference in Brussels, Belgium.

Dr. Keith Rowley, whose T&T was once the leading industrial country in the region, was not present at the major summit.

A series of projects were unveiled at the conference, in energy, technology, manufacturing, and other industries.

Guyana would be a primary beneficiary.

A few days earlier, United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken held bilateral talks in Georgetown with Ali, and there were pledges of cooperation on various economic matters.

In Jamaica, a new cement plant is being constructed, a bauxite mining park is in the making, and major road repairs and a housing project are taking place.

Jamaica was revealed to have received more than $300 million in direct foreign investments last year, while T&T saw an outflow of US $914 million.

Jamaica’s economy has stabilised and developed, though, not as fast as Guyana, which registered a real growth of 62 per cent last year and is projected to expand by 25 per cent in 2023.

In T&T, the state of the mothballed Pointe-a-Pierre refinery typifies the national economic state.

Michael Quamina, Chairman of Heritage Petroleum, has been quoted as urging anyone with interest to submit a bid for the idle facility.

Energy experts project that, with evolving developments in the international hydrocarbon sector, the refinery, and associated plants may never churn again.

If the operations are ever to restart, they must be repurposed at a significant cost, according to the expert.

Guyana is constructing a refinery at Berbice, with the completion date set for 2025.

With the lights dim at most Point Lisas industrial plants, the ALNG project at half-capacity, and no real industrial development, T&T is heading in a different direction from Guyana and Jamaica.

New projects are continuously being unveiled in Guyana while Jamaica is on a growth path.

In T&T, the Pointe-a-Pierre white elephant tells all.