Latest update April 23rd, 2024 12:59 AM
Jun 11, 2014 News
In light of all that has been in the news about China, both locally and on the international stage, A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) Member of Parliament, Joseph Harmon has sought to make it clear that he has no problem with foreign investments, specifically those of China or its nationals. He said in fact that he is an advocate for “sound” foreign investments but his problem comes when these investors are handed Guyana on a platter.
A few weeks back, Kaieteur News published an article carrying the headline “NICIL gifts Turkeyen land to China Railway.”
This article informed the nation that National Industrial and Commercial Investments Ltd (NICIL) had given a plot of Turkeyen land to China Railway Engineering Group.
China Railway was considered as a key construction partner during discussions last year on the controversial Amaila Falls Hydro Project.
It was discovered, in the Official Gazette, that there was a double transfer of land at Turkeyen from the Guyana Lands and Surveys Commission to NICIL which is headed by Winston Brassington. NICIL then transferred a plot of land to China Railway Guyana Incorporated with no cost attached.
Political leaders on the opposition side questioned this transfer asking why the engineering group was gifted the land as opposed to it being sold.
Harmon told Kaieteur News that the Chinese are astute business people and will always seek to invest. His contention is that they, as a people, cannot be blamed for wanting to invest. According to the Member of Parliament, the blame must be placed solely at the feet of the government.
He said it is imperative that the government establish a regulatory environment “because without it there will be all kinds of corruption, even in investments, like we have seen.”
The Member of Parliament reiterated that he has no problem with overseas investors but such investors must understand that their purpose is to invest and make money, not to take the country for free or buy over it cheaply.
“Foreigners are free to invest, but not take our country for free.”
He said that once there is firm regulatory body and a level playing field “all will be good and I would not have anything negative to say…But they (investors) must understand that they will not be allowed to just come and deal with some corrupt government officials and enjoy free and cheap benefits while the Guyanese people suffer.”
At the recent opening ceremony of the 17th meeting of the Council of Foreign and Community Relations (COFCOR) at the Guyana International Conference Centre, Caricom Secretary General, Irwin LaRocque said that there is now a multiplicity of centres of power and influence. The US remains a major, some may even argue, indispensable global actor. He pointed out that emerging from its economic stagnation, the EU remains another major centre of political and economic influence. He also noted that the influence of the BRICS, (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) on the global economic system is increasing along with their strategic weight. “Among the BRICS, China is a rising global power, with a number of forecasts predicting that it could eventually overtake the USA as the most powerful global economic power. It has been aggressively expanding its economic and financial outreach to various regions of the world, including Latin America and the Caribbean,” LaRocque pointed out.
For the last few years, China has maintained a heavy presence in Guyana and has been sealing some “attractive deals” as more of its nationals take up residence here.
But President Donald Ramotar said he is not worried about the amount of stakes China already has in Guyana. He told the media that Guyana needs investments and if one follows the trend around the world, one would notice that the Chinese seem to have capital available to drive the world’s economy. He disclosed as well that there was no think-tank group to determine if the projects being funded by China were good deals.
Guyana is significantly indebted to China and the country continues to borrow more.
Many nations that fell victim are now beginning to observe China’s strategy. As recent as a few weeks ago, this newspaper published an article that reflected what is happening in other jurisdictions.
The article, which first appeared in the New York Times, highlighted the shady deals and contracts “greased with monetary bribes and other enticements like expense-paid shopping trips to China and scholarships for elite children.”
It said that natives of Africa have realized the penalties of making certain deals and have begun to doubt that China has its interest in their well being.
The article noted, “The doubts aren’t coming from any soured feelings from African leaders themselves, most of whom still welcome (and profit from) China’s embrace.”
It also reflected that independent media have played an important role in demanding more scrutiny of government deals with Beijing”…A recent op-ed article in one of Kenya’s leading newspapers, The Daily Nation, questioned whether a huge new Chinese investment in a railroad that would run from the coast all the way to landlocked Uganda and beyond was truly a good deal. The project’s first phase will increase Kenya’s external debt by a third.” That railroad is the same one that President Ramotar referred to.
The New York Times article also noted that Kenya could have sought the financing for a project like this through the World Bank, which would have cost as little as a third of the Chinese commercial loan. But that would have required time-consuming processes, from competitive bidding to rigorous environmental and feasibility studies.
The crux of the problem, according to the New York Times, is (though not limited to China) the reliance on “shady arrangements made at the very top of the political system, often in the president’s office itself.”
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