From: Anthony_Maillard@Mdd.comm.mot.com (Anthony Maillard)
Subject: Guyana (If Yuh Int'rested)
Followup-To: soc.culture.caribbean
Organization: Motorola, Mobile Data Division - Seattle, WA
Date: Fri, 8 Jan 1993 03:09:27 GMT

These articles may have been posted before. If they have ....sorry.
Christmas break and all that.
All copyright sources are listed but some articles have been edited.

Anthony Maillard - If Yuh Int'rested

Guyana 

Milling Firm To Receive 2.5-Million-Dollar Loan

Washington, Dec 3 (ips) -- The Inter-American Investment Corporation (IIC)
announced it had approved a 2.5- million-dollar loan to the Guyanese
enterprise 'Kayman Sankar investments limited', which is taking over a
rice-growing and milling facility previously owned by the government.
Kayman Sankar, located in the county of Berbice, is acquiring the
five-metric-tonne-per-hour rice mill and 5,600 acres of land to produce
paddy rice for milling, the IIC said. It will also purchase rice from small
independent farmers in the region, according to the IIC, which estimated
the total cost of the project at 14.4 million dollars.
At full capacity, the company is supposed to produce 26,000 tonnes of rice
per year, most of which will be exported to the European Community (EC) and
elsewhere in the Caribbean, the IIC said. The project is part of the
privatisation programme begun two years ago by the government of former
President Desmond Hoyte. It said the project should generate about 61.4
million dollars in foreign exchange earnings during its first 10 years of
operation and create 300 direct and more than 300 indirect jobs.

Copyright Inter Press Service 1992, all rights reserved.



Cholera Outbreak Hurts Economic Activities


Georgetown-- Jamaican importers have begun putting rsstrictions on Guyana
fish enzering the northern Caribbean island, following news that cholera
has broken out in the South American territory.
According to officials of Bev enterprises, a large marine food exporter
here, Jamaica recently rejected a shipment of 200, 000 pounds of fish.
''Jamaica is a very good market, but i think they may be overreacting ...
particularly as our seafood is caught 200 hundred miles out at sea in our
exclusive economic zone,'' a company spokesman said.
The crucial u.s. supply line remains open however, the spokesman said,
mainly because that country tests food imports. ''We think the Jamaicans
should do the same,'' he said. Japan has also not yet put any restrictions
on its imports of prawns and shark fins. The fishing industry here has been
growing rapibly sinceithe country began opening its formerly closed economy
and encouraging trade liberalisation in 1987. together with agriculture and
forestry, fishing accounts for 12.1 percent of gdp.
In the meantime, the cholera epidemic, which has so far claimed three lives
and has hit 168 Guyanese, could have other dire consequences for the
country's economy.
The cholera outbreak, which is still confined to the Mabaruma district
which borders venezuela to the north west, threatens to wipe out the gains
made by the economy so far, says noted economist Clive Thomas.
Thomas has also criticised the government for releasing sparse information
on the cholera outbreak noting that it is better to tell all and begin a
widespread education campaign. After years of neglect due to underfunding
of the city council, the drains are clogged with an accumulation of garbage
and weeds. all the exits into the Demerara river are also stopped up with
silt. for years, whenever it rains heavily in Georgetown, the drains and
canals have overflowed into the streets and yards of residents of this
coastal city. So far, the city council, which has pledged to make sure that
cholera does not overrun the city, has done nothing about the drains. 

Copyright Inter Press Service 1992, all rights reserved.



IDB Announces 23.4-Million-Dollar Loan


Washington, Sep. 17 (ips) -- Guyana is to receive a loan of 23.4 million
dollars to help rehabilitate its highway system, the Inter- American
Development bank (IDB) announced. The infrastructural programme is designed
to diminish losses caused by the deterioration of the three highways that
make up the system. It will also help train professionals in the country to
better direct and implement future projects to maintain and improve the
highway system, the bank said. The project will be implemented by the
ministry of public works, communications, and regional development, it
said.


More Cholera Cases Found


Georgetown, Dec 4 (ips) -- The health ministry here has reported no new
cholera deaths, but figures it has released show that the epidemic is
spreading with one case being reported in this capital city. There are
still four cholera deaths here, with the lone Georgetown case being that of
a businessman from the western country of Essequibo, where the disease is
spreading along the coast population. Health officials say the man
contracted the disease in Essequibo and brought it back to the capital this
week.
The man was treated and sent home but officials have carried out
investigations at nearby Riverview, where he took ill. so far no traces of
cholera have been found in the area. Sagala said in addition to the four
deaths, there have been 62 confirmed cases and 228 suspected cases since
the disease was discovered in this South American country early November.
First found in the northwest district of Mabaruma which borders Venezuela,
the disease has now spread to the western district of Pomeroon and into
coastal West Demerara less than 40 miles from the capital.
But Sagala has been trying to reassure residents of the capital that they
do not have much to worry about now.
''The ministry of health has always been of the view that until all the
communities surrounding Georgetown city are sufficiently contaminated,
there would not be a sustained transmission of cholera in the city of
Georgetown,'' he said. he also announced that medical teams from Suriname
and Trinidad and Tobago are to visit Guyana over the next two weeks to
learn how to manage such an outbreak.
Trinidad and Tobago, which lies off the north coast of Venezuela,
discovered the cholera bacteria in one of its south coast rivers in
February. Suriname has had several cases of the disease but they are
located close to its border with brazil and about 400 km from the capital
Paramaribo.

Copyright Inter Press Service 1992, all rights reserved.



Anthony Maillard
Newsgroups: soc.culture.caribbean