China backs Guyana electricity upgrade

China is providing a loan of US$39.6 million to help Guyana expand its electricity programme to consumers in several parts of the country.

Finance Minister Dr Ashni Singh signed the agreement with the Chinese Ambassador to Guyana Zhang Jungao for the concessional loan from the Export-Import Bank of China.

The funds will be used by the Guyana Power and Light (GPL) Incorporated to upgrade transmission lines that will benefit consumers in the capital and a number of areas.

"We are taking a great step in the maturing of our electricity sector, which means a lot to us as we are coming from a time when service was very poor, but over the last two decades we have been able to greatly improve the provision of electricity and there is still more to do," said Prime Minister Samuel Hinds, who is also the minister of energy.

He noted that while Guyana's electricity system is still rudimentary when compared to other countries, the Bharrat Jagdeo government is now able to take measures to ensure that citizens benefit from an improved supply of electricity.

"It wasn't done before because we needed to take steps that are sound and we needed to take to steps that we could meet so we are glad that we have been afforded this support in the form of a concessionary loan with no implications on electricity tariff, as would have been the case in a commercial loan," Hinds said.

Singh said that the project represents the strong bilateral relationship between Guyana and China, emphasising that Guyana is one of the first countries in CARICOM to have established diplomatic relations with Beijing.

He said the project will also support the installation of a fibre-optic link, the supervisory control and data acquisition system, which will better enable communications and control of the system from a centralised location.

"Once completed, we will have a more robust transmission and distribution network through the integrated coastal operations of GPL," he said.

- CMC