LCN Newsroom · Georgetown, Guyana · 22 July 2026
AT A GLANCE In his opening address to the 13th IRF Caribbean Regional Congress, Chairman Randell Iwasaki set the host government a pointed charge: investigate the safety failure, fix the policies, maintain what it builds, and connect the coast to the interior. |
The International Road Federation’s chairman spent little of his opening address applauding Guyana. Randell Iwasaki praised the roads and bridges going up across the country, then handed the host government a short list of things to do about them.
What did Iwasaki ask Guyana to do first?
His first charge followed the sea, not the road. Days after the MV Barima ferry disaster, Iwasaki told transport officials to work out what went wrong, to make sure their policies close the safety gaps the failure exposed, and to see that it does not happen again. He wanted the failure taken back, studied and fixed. He drew on 37 years in California’s public sector, where a worker’s death was the outcome every safety rule existed to prevent.
What did he tell the government about its road programme?
The build-out drew praise. The demand behind it was maintenance. Iwasaki pressed the government not to forget asset management, warning that new highways, four-lane corridors and bridges mean little without the discipline to keep them. “Take care of what you build,” he said. He put the same weight on road-safety systems, calling them essential rather than optional.
He also asked Guyana to build with purpose. A road has to connect to something and grow the economy, he argued, not stand as construction for its own sake. Stronger links between the coast and the interior would lift economic life in the regions the network still leaves behind, a theme that runs through Guyana’s own transport agenda.
Why do the asks carry weight this week?
Timing sharpened every line. The congress opened with search teams still recovering bodies from the MV Barima, and a chairman who has built ferries and highways for a living was telling the host to treat safety as the first duty, not the closing courtesy. Guyana is spending at record pace. Iwasaki’s charge was to spend the same care on keeping people alive.
Frequently asked questions
What did the IRF chairman ask Guyana to do?
Investigate the recent safety failure, fix transport-safety policy, maintain the infrastructure it builds, and improve coast-to-interior connectivity.
When did he say this?
In his opening address to the 13th IRF Caribbean Regional Congress in Georgetown on 22 July 2026.
Who is Randell Iwasaki?
A veteran California transport engineer and administrator, elected IRF chairman in December 2025.