On the 13th Of October 2023, the Mayor Mr. Raheem Solomon, and the Councillors of Linden, met with a delegation from the Diaspora Business and Investment Conference 2023. Captivating interest in Linden as a prime investment destination for those in attendance is an understatement. The audience was given a taste of what the town has to offer in the most convincing way. As the Mayor puts it, Linden is the Heart of Guyana.
What are the projections on Linden?
The vision of the mayor and councillors is to see the town become the second city in Guyana in the next couple of years. It is the capital of Region 10 and is ideally located as an intermediate between the Coastland and Hinterland zones of the country. It is conventionally known for bauxite and recognized as the “mining town”. A title held for over 100 years.
As explained Linden is a gateway town, that borders six other regions in Guyana. Also, it provides passage to the neighbouring country Brazil. The three most important rivers in Guyana either pass around or through the town, which is the case of the Demerara River.
Re-branding
Currently, there is a conscious effort to re-brand the town as “The Heart of Guyana”. For the past two months, the council has made steadfast moves in this regard. They would like to see Linden recognized not only as the mining town or as the gateway town because of its geographic position. But, because of the intent to fit Linden into Guyana’s developmental agenda.
The agenda
Some of the points mentioned by the mayor at the meeting are as follows. As part of that agenda, let’s take an outlook by sectors beginning with manufacturing. Linden has the cheapest electricity by almost 1000% compared to other geographic areas in Guyana. In the tourism sector, Linden is being touted as the go-to destination. Because of this, the 2022 launch of “Tourism Destination” was held in no other than Linden. Agriculture, for the past four to five decades Linden has had the largest agricultural programme in Guyana called the Upper-Berbice Agriculture project. Communication, Linden is ideally positioned for the placement of Information technology hubs because of the height of the land mass and its connectivity with the rest of Guyana.
Port facility, the Demerara River dissects Linden as is still the most important medium for transporting materials throughout the country. At present, the Demerara River provides logistic support to the oil and gas sector. As such, it can provide deep water harbour facilities for the sector and ports can be established in Linden. Sixty-five percent (65 %) of Guyana’s raw materials either pass through or come from region 10. The Housing sector, as per the recently concluded building expo, projects the sector to be worth 2 billion within the next five years. There are currently 60 thousand applications for house lots, regions 3 and 4 can support only 47 thousand. As such Linden is a prime location for the remainder of the applicants.
Recent developments
The recent development project of Silica City sits right at the doorstep of Linden. The council has been proactive in meeting with key players in the developmental agenda. They have met with the president of one of the lead oil-producing companies in Guyana Exxon Mobil. They have held discussions with one of Guyana’s leading telecommunication companies, Gtt. These meetings are key to finding common interests and establishing plans that pave the way forward for development.
Watch the mayor’s speech here.
