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Description
A private-sector study has concluded that Guatemala will need billions in infrastructure investment, "in order" says the author, "not to be left behind and to remain competitive in the globalized world." The organization that commissioned the study, the Programa Nacional de Competitividad (PRONACOM), was set up by the government of outgoing President Oscar Berger in 2004. With Berger scheduled to pass the mantle of the presidency to President-elect Alvaro Colom on Jan. 14, the business community is becoming increasingly concerned that Colom, a social democrat, will fail to prioritize the sacred tenet of the sector, investment.
PRONACOM was conceived as a program to run from 2005 to 2015. The program estimated the country's annual infrastructure-investment requirement, to maintain current growth levels, at US$340 million. But, in the first two years of the Colom administration, US$700 million will be required each year to continue works in progress, including the modernization of La Aurora International Airport, expanded highways, and improved ports. Included in the to-do list is the completion, after many years, of the periferico, the beltway around Guatemala City that handles most of the traffic that pours into the capital daily. Elsewhere around the country, only 42% of rural roads and only 59% of the system as a whole are paved.
The periferico, or Anillo Metropolitano, is estimated at US$1 billion. Another road project of immense proportions... |
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