Renewable energy resource the answer to rising fuel prices
-President tells media-alludes to hydropower necessity      

Georgetown, GINA, May 7, 2008

Responding to questions by the media as to Government’s plans to mitigate the rising cost of transportation due to the rising cost of fuel, President Bharrat Jagdeo told the media today during a press conference at his Office that renewable energy resource is the answer.    
            The President had earlier announced a number of additional measures to be implemented by his Government that should see Guyanese being relieved of some of the financial burden being caused by rising food and fuel prices on the world market.
            He explained that Guyana has the highest per capita consumption of fuel in Latin America.
            “This is why we use now the equivalent of 35 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to import fuel. If it (fuel) goes to US$200 (per barrel) as predicted, I don’t think it’s going to get there in the near term but assuming that happens close to 70 percent of the GDP would be used to import fuel, equivalent of 70 percent of the economy. No country could sustain that kind of financial resources without there being serious problems,” President Jagdeo said.
            He noted that the United States of America has been using less than five percent of its GDP to import fuel, but that most countries in the Caribbean due to their small economies and high per capita consumption, use a fairly significant part of their GDP to import the commodity.
            “The answer has to be renewable, energy resources. I met with the investors for the AMAILA Falls project, the license should have expired at the end of April and I have given an extension up to the end of September when they told me that they would by then put in the tender request for proposals and they would have a firm idea as to what the price would be for the building of the transmission main and the hydropower itself,” he disclosed.
            It is expected that the Head of State will again meet with the investors and according to him, if the group cannot complete the project, Government would have to find another route including getting directly involved in building the hydropower.
              “This is going to happen, one way or another, we have to do that in the long run to transform this country,” President Jagdeo posited.  
            The President had long before alluded to the need for the hydropower project to come on stream as fuel prices continued to increase worldwide. The impact of this has been causing havoc in several countries. It has resulted in food prices increasing in Guyana and transport operators now calling for an increase in fares for public transportation.  

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