Some mistakes we made

Feb 28, 2013 Editorial

Guyana is selling the idea that the gold industry has gobbled up the bulk of the skilled people in the country. Indeed, the gold industry is perhaps one of the largest employers, ever since gold prices reached astronomical levels.
But for more than a century even before gold prices were nothing to shout about Guyanese in general but the people from the Caribbean islands in particular were seeking the fabled El Dorado. It was they who opened up the many hinterland communities. There were the Amerindians there, they having fled from the coastal plains as the other people came.
Communities like Bartica and Mahdia and Tumatumari and Kurupung and Issano all sprang up. Simultaneous with the development of these hinterland communities were constructions along coastal Guyana as those who were more inclined to cater for the less adventurous, the administrators and others of their ilk.
The long and short of all this is that at no time was the pursuit of gold and other minerals in the hinterland capable of affecting infrastructural development along coastal Guyana. To further highlight this situation is the fact that the main players in the local gold industry are the foreigners. They are the Brazilians and the Nigerians and the Chinese who have infinitely more finance to facilitate exploration than the Guyanese.
Because of local laws the Brazilians and the Nigerians must present themselves to be in partnership with Guyanese. The Chinese have come as a major investor in the gold industry and therefore do not need the local cover. They have their own labour force.
For President Ramotar to tell the people in Miami that the problem with Guyana is that there are not enough locals to gain employment on the Marriott project is nothing short of peddling misinformation. He more than anyone else would know that almost each day people turn up for meetings with his Ministers and with other members of his political directorate complaining that they need jobs. These are people who have not been lured to the gold fields.
But there is something that many people do not recognize and that is the rush to dub the protest against the non-employment of Guyanese as a case of racism. There has never been a case of any foreigner coming to Guyana and not using local labour.
The National Convention Centre was a gift from the Chinese Government. Although it was built with total Chinese funding there was a drive to acquire local labour. And this stood Guyana in good stead.
The supervisors on that project still talk about the competition between the Chinese and the Guyanese. It was healthy competition and both Chinese and Guyanese learned from each other.
We move to the National Stadium at Providence. That was built with a loan from India and the contractor who won the bid was Indian. Again the contractor sought Guyanese labour and employed hundreds. Once more there was healthy competition.
At no time was there the case of the Guyanese lagging on the job because they were not a bunch working on their own. They were forced to match skills with the foreigners and they did.
We now know that the non employment of Guyanese has been seen as a gross mistake by the Chinese contractor. We also suspect that Guyana peddled to the Chinese the myth that there was no skilled labour to be had in Guyana.
It is heartening to know that the protest action by sections of the society has not been in vain. The Chinese contractor, Shanghai Construction Group is now moving to employ local labour, something that could have been done in the first instance.
There are other Chinese contractors in Guyana and none of them is making the mistake that Shanghai Construction Group made. China Harbour Engineering Company, t he company working on the airport expansion project, has already advertised for local labour.
And the nation is going to need these groups of workers.

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