Hold foreign investors accountable for creating jobs - AFC tells Govt

Hold foreign investors accountable for creating jobs – AFC tells Govt

Apr 15, 2014 News

The fact that Guyanese are not employed in the construction of the controversial Marriott Hotel has brought great discontent among citizens. And this has happened despite former President Bharrat Jagdeo’s assurances to the nation that the multi-million-dollar Marriott Hotel project would have brought hundreds of jobs to the country.

Some of the protest action that occurred outside the Marriott Hotel.

Especially, younger persons would have gained employment.
Winston Brassington, Head of Atlantic Hotel Inc, which is overseeing the branding of the hotel had assured citizens and Union representatives last year that the Government will continue to push for the contractor, Shanghai Construction Group (SCG), to hire local labourers in the construction phase of the US$51M hotel.
That was done even as he read out a clause in the contract to union representatives stating that the contractor has the right to import its labour. However, with the construction of the 197 -room hotel ongoing, Guyanese are yet to get their share of work at the facility.
Alliance for Change (AFC) member Trevor Williams is therefore calling on the government to ensure that a foreign investment regime is put in place to hold foreign investors and developers accountable for creating jobs for Guyanese.
Williams had made the call during his 2014 budget presentation last week as he explained a grave dilemma which he said is facing young people as a result of job shortages.
“Absent also is an investment regime that has foreign investors ensuring that they create employment for Guyanese.”
“We had the Marriott fiasco of recent and now Bai Shan Lin recently announced that in its plan to invest in Value Added forestry products in Guyana, over 300 skilled persons would have been needed. Unfortunately, there was no indication that any could be supplied from Guyana.”
Williams added, “Vitarna Holdings after acquiring Caribbean Resources Limited (CRL) from CLICO in Region Seven promised Guyanese that it would invest in value added production instead of shipping away raw materials which rob the country of revenues. Well after a number of years it is yet to keep that promise.”
Williams had also informed the National Assembly of a report which said that a worker from the extracting industry was assaulted by his foreign employer. The report, he continued, is that the Manager had hit one worker with a spade and pelted others with hard hats. When that worker stood up to his employer, he was fired. Williams called on the Labour Ministry to look into the matter and protect citizens from such injustices.
He pointed fingers at Labour Minister, Nanda Gopaul, who he said spoke boldly about that Ministry being ready to represent workers’ interest across Guyana, but citizens continue to encounter such incidents.
Speaking on the rate of migration, Williams had also said to the House that, “Apart from being rid of our best and brightest via the continuing brain drain scenario, Guyana’s youth remain largely detached from mainstream development, mostly unemployed or under-employed.”
He said that many young persons are selling water and newspapers at stop lights, while they are willing and ready to work, “but our Government must show faith in them and partner with the private sector to make these opportunities available.”
“I would have expected particularly in an electioneering budget, concrete programmes focusing on youth entrepreneurship from a policy level. A multisectoral job creation programme that links GO-Invest with the Ministries responsible for Labour, Education, Industry and Youth would have been welcomed but is of course conspicuously absent.”