The United States Export-Import (EXIM) Bank this week approved a US$526 million loan for Guyana’s Gas-to-Energy project, a move Vice President Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo said dismantles the lies told by representatives of the Alliance For Change (AFC) party.
In a release on Thursday, the US Embassy in Georgetown announced that the loan was approved by the Board of Directors of the EXIM Bank.
The AFC had previously claimed that the loan did not get initial approval and would not likely get the necessary approval. Jagdeo and other government officials said this was not the case previously.
“This approval is positive but it is also demonstrative of the extent of the lies that the AFC would tell, saying that this project was not approved and would never be approved, and bring that to the Guyanese public in a situation where it could be easily proven otherwise,” Jagdeo lamented on Thursday during his weekly press conference.
US EXIM Bank announces approval of US$526M loan for Guyana’s Gas-to-Energy project
He added, “If you can lie to that extent in such a set of circumstances, how many other lies would you tell or (how many) issues you would fabricate to score cheap political points?”
Jagdeo said there are those in the opposition seemingly bent on fabricating issues but vowed that the government was being transparent.
Situated in Wales on the West Bank Demerara, the Gas-to-Energy project is expected to slash energy costs by half and further drive economic growth and energy stability for the fastest-growing economy in the world.
The funding from the EXIM bank will also include retroactive financing, which will allow the government to recoup costs it has already incurred since the project began.
Aside from drawing attention to the AFC’s utterances, the Vice President also addressed concerns raised about the seemingly huge sum borrowed.
According to him, the loan from the EXIM Bank is just about 25% of the overall cost of the mega project. The rest of the project, he explained, is financed from local resources and through a special arrangement with ExxonMobil (for the pipeline component).
