Guyana Government Denies Borrowing Millions From Islamic Bank

GEORGETOWN, Guyana, April 18, 2018 (CMC) – The Guyana government has dismissed reports that it has borrowed GUY$900 million from the Islamic Development Bank (ISDB), even as it has acknowledged that the Saudi Arabia-based financial institution has provided government with its largest-ever resource envelope.

Finance Minister Winston Jordan said that the “resource envelope” has not been accessed by the David Granger government.

“As I said, it’s a resource envelope. We will have to go through all the due diligence before we can access, even a small part of it,” Jordan told reporters.

He said essentially new borrowing by the government, from May 2015 to December 31, 2017, is under US$210 million, including a US$45.2 million loan from China, and US$50 million from India for road development projects.

Jordan was critical of some sections of the media, here, saying “the message is rather than carrying stories to scare, I want you to keep this (information) so you can refer to it constantly, when people are attempting to frighten the public into believing that the government is borrowing its way and leaving burdens for future generations. The facts speak for themselves”.

He said that the ISDB’s offer — the largest resource envelope ever made available to Guyana from any multilateral agency — is available to the country for specific developmental sectors, including energy, agriculture, rural development, human development, banking, and finance.

A government statement said that membership of ISDB, a multilateral lender dominated by Muslim-majority states, including Saudi Arabia and Iran, will give Guyana access to loans at concessionary rates.

“In the long term, it could also encourage banks and companies from the Gulf and southeast Asia to do business in Guyana,” the statement added.