Upper Demerara-Berbice

Upper Demerara-Berbice (Region 10) represents Guyana's interior mineral extraction economy—bauxite mining centered on Linden, the regional capital and industrial town that predates the oil boom. When Guyana's GDP was $4.8 billion in 2018, bauxite mattered more. Now that GDP approaches $25 billion on oil production, the relative importance of interior mining has shrunk even as absolute production continues.

The region connects the coastal economy to the interior, bridging the Demerara and Berbice river systems. This intermediary position offers potential for development infrastructure—roads, power, services—that would open the deep interior. Whether oil revenue finances such infrastructure depends on political choices about regional distribution.

Upper Demerara-Berbice's bauxite economy created the labor force, infrastructure, and political constituency that the region retains. Linden's population provides a node for interior development that pure mining or agricultural regions lack. As Guyana's 14% projected annual growth through 2028 transforms the country, this region's positioning between coast and interior could prove advantageous—or leave it bypassed as development concentrates on the coast and offshore.