Caribbean Journey
Guyana's Secret $20 Billion SMART CITY Transformation SHOCKS the World
Georgetown, the capital of Guyana, sits six feet below sea level. A seawall built by Dutch colonisers centuries ago is the only thing separating hundreds of thousands of people from the Atlantic Ocean. High tides already wash over the top of it. The World Bank projects Guyana's shoreline will retreat sixty-five metres by 2050. And Georgetown has flooded catastrophically in 2005, 2015, and 2021.
So Guyana did something almost no government in history has had the financial capacity to do. They started building an entirely new city from scratch on higher ground, twenty-five miles south of the capital, with a masterplan designed by the University of Miami and global design firm Perkins and Will.
That city is called Silica City. Eleven thousand acres. Sixty thousand residents at full build-out. Twelve distinct zones. Renewable energy. AI-managed traffic signals that adjust in real time. Smart homes with energy technology built into the structure. An Innovation Village developed in partnership with MIT. And a target completion date of 2030.
This documentary breaks down the full blueprint the design philosophy, the smart city technology, what is actually under construction right now, who is financing it, and the serious accountability questions that have been raised about how the project is being managed. We cover all of it. The vision and the gaps.
🔍 WHAT THIS VIDEO COVERS
Why Georgetown cannot be saved from rising seas the engineering reality
The land shortage that forced the government to look inland
What Silica City actually is the name, the location, the scale
The University of Miami masterplan who designed it and how
The tree-structure design philosophy and the 15-minute city principle
The smart city technology sensors, AI traffic management, adaptive drainage
The Innovation Village MIT, the Guyana Innovation Group, and exponential technology
What is under construction right now Phase One progress as of 2025
Phase Two the diaspora investment opportunity
The brain drain reversal strategy built into the project
The accountability critique why one Guyanese legal analyst called it "Pradoville Three in the making"
Why this project matters beyond Guyana a model for every climate-vulnerable Caribbean nation
📌 SOURCES & REFERENCES
University of Miami Silica City MOU and Masterplan, November 2023
Perkins and Will Environmental Analysis, Silica City Masterplan 2024
Guyana Department of Public Information (DPI) President Ali, International Building Expo, August 2024
Caribbean News Global Silica City Phase Two Diaspora Investment Announcement, April 2025
World Bank Guyana Shoreline Retreat Projection Report
Climate Central Coastal Risk Projections, Georgetown, Guyana
ScienceDirect Guyana Coastal Plain Population Concentration Analysis
Migration Policy Institute Guyanese Tertiary Education Emigration Data, 1965–2000
Christopher Ram, Chartered Accountant and Attorney-at-Law Stabroek News Column, January 2026
Guyana Ministry of Finance Budget 2026 Housing Sector Allocation
Guyana Ministry of Housing and Water Minister Collin Croal, Site Inspection Reports, June 2024 and September 2025
NCN Guyana Silica City Housing Construction Update, 2024
INews Guyana Phase One Home Pricing and Construction Progress
Luis Videgaray, MIT Statement on AI Policy and Silica City, August 2024
Salim Ismail, Open ExO Statement on Innovation Village, August 2024
Guyana Times Silica City Biodiversity and Forest City Vision, May 2025
Natural Resource Fund Act, 2019 Guyana
Guyana Housing Act Section 49, Annual Reporting Requirements
⚠️ DISCLAIMER
This video is produced for educational and informational purposes only. All facts, figures, statistics, and quotes are sourced from publicly available government documents, university publications, credible news outlets, and academic sources as listed above. Caribbean Journey does not take political sides and does not represent or speak on behalf of any government, political party, corporation, or institution. The accountability critique featured in this video is attributed to a named, credentialled professional source and is presented as documented public commentary not as the position of this channel. Information is accurate to the best of our knowledge as of the date of publication. Project timelines, costs, and details may change after publication. This content does not constitute financial, investment, or legal advice. Caribbean Journey is an independent documentary channel.
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Published May 1, 2026