Cabinet awaits IDB feasibility study on Amaila Falls project - Minister Harmon
MINISTER of State in Ministry of the Presidency, Joseph Harmon, told reporters yesterday that a team from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) was yesterday expected to submit their findings on the feasibility of the Amaila Falls hydroelectricity project. “I am pleased to report that, as of now, the IDB Vice-President, Mr. Alexandre Rosa, and Manager for the Caribbean Department of the IDB, Mr. Gerald Johnson… are in the country and we expect that we will have some report on the status of the economic feasibility study of the project that was to be done by the IDB,” Harmon said.
While the A Partnership for National Unity (APNU), and the Alliance For Change had given limited support to the project during the 10th Parliament (2011-2015), Harmon said this was due to the demand, by the two parties, for an economic feasibility study done on the project.
The content of that report, Harmon noted, will underpin Cabinet’s position on the project that has long been on the agenda of Guyana’s Parliament.
As an aside, Harmon was asked what mechanism was used by the Government to prioritise the reviewing of projects started under the former People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) Government. He said those were “projects for which sums of money have been spent, [and those] on which we are paying fees to the international banks on these contracts itself.”
Meanwhile, Harmon disclosed that the Government of Guyana has until early July to submit a mandate letter to the IDB indicating its commitment to continue the Amaila hydroelectricity project.
