Latest update February 6th, 2025 7:27 AM
Feb 16, 2013 News
Government is playing a major role in compounding unemployment among young people with the outsourcing of work on home territory, says Jermaine Grant, President of Youth Coalition for Transformation.
Grant expressed that notion yesterday as he protested the exclusion of Guyanese labourers and the use of only Chinese nationals in the construction phase of the US$60M Marriott Hotel being funded by Guyanese taxpayers. The protest was held in front the Marriott Hotel construction site, Kingston.
Shanghai Construction Group was awarded the contract to construct the Marriott Hotel in Guyana. Winston Brassington, Chief Executive Officer of Atlantic Hotel Inc. (AHI) claimed that Government got a reduction of US$9 million in the bid price by Shanghai Construction Group under the condition that it could have control over whom it hires.
Brassington had said that the use of a mostly Chinese labour force to construct the hotel was just one of several conditionalities necessary for the facility’s efficient and speedy construction.
The official also said that the issue of productivity and communication had been a cause for concern along with the lack of specialized skills needed for the tasks.
According to Grant, developing countries like Guyana need foreign investments for job creation and this “anti-Guyana” move by Government has set a bad precedent. He said that Government is signaling to foreign investors that they could ignore locals and import labourers.
He noted that the defense given by the Labour Minister, Nanda Gopaul that Guyanese labourers are not knowledgeable of the technology being used by the contractor, is inexcusable. He said that the construction of this hotel was in the pipeline for years, giving Government enough time to update the curricula of the Faculty of Technology of the University of Guyana and technical training institutions.
Grant stated that the inadequacies of Guyana’s technical education should be addressed immediately to meet the demands of a technologically advanced world. He said that Guyana may soon have an oil industry and courses should be offered to meet the needs of that industry.
He added that it would be unfortunate if foreign nationals would have to come to Guyana and work on the oil rigs because Guyanese are not knowledgeable in that field.
Alliance For Change executive member, Nigel Hughes, also emphasized the need for training. He said that efforts should be made to train citizens so that they could benefit from projects being executed locally.
Hughes believes that the Trade Unions have to lead this protest since it is more of a national issue than a political one. He said that the persons who signed the contracts agreeing to the exclusion of Guyanese should do the honourable thing and pack their bags and leave.
Social activist, Frederick Kissoon, who led the protestors in chants “No Guyanese…No Chinese”, “Guyana belongs to Guyanese”, “No Guyanese…No Marriott” said that he had predicted that once a dictatorship is allowed to take excesses, it goes into bizarre directions.
He said that it is bizarre that a sovereign State contracts a company that does not hire locals. Kissoon, a former lecturer at the University of Guyana, said that the disintegration of communism led to nationalist movements around the world. He is convinced that no other sovereign nation would see the exclusion of its citizens from a local project.
Kissoon said that if Guyanese could allow this atrocity then Guyanese would allow anything. He believes that this is the time for A Partnership for National Unity and Alliance For Change, the two Opposition parties in the National Assembly that hold a one-seat majority to confront the government and set things right for Guyanese.
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