Berbice businesses endorse conditional GuySuCo privatization

Berbice businesses endorse conditional GuySuCo privatization – Finance Minister

Mar 26, 2017 News

There may be some temporary humps in the road for Guyana in the foreign exchange trade as far as government is concerned but there are plans to address the situation.

Berbice Chamber of Commerce is not immune to Skeldon factory and other parts of GuySuCo being privatized.

Some of these plans will include careful management of the country’s forests and mining lands to ensure that Guyana maximizes.
Answering questions on Friday about the administration’s plans, Finance Minister, Winston Jordan, said that while oil is on the horizon following a major find offshore Guyana back in 2015, a number of other areas are being looked at, for example, the sugar industry.
On Friday, the Berbice Chambers of Commerce met with Finance Minister and made it clear that they would like to see privatization taking place at the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo), but with certain conditions.
According to Jordan, some of these privatizations would include closure of a number of under-performing estates, with Skeldon at the top of the list.
The disclosure would raise eyebrows since Skeldon estate has new factory, under a US$200M project that was commissioned in 2009 by the Bharrat Jagdeo administration.
However, despite being hailed as the catalyst to jumpstart the ailing industry, the factory has failed to deliver and has been a financial drain on GuySuCo’s limited cash resources.
In 2015, the Coalition government plugged in $12B; reducing this to $11B last year. This year, the bailout was $9B.
There have been offers for the takeover of Skeldon.
According to Jordan on Friday, some of the proposals for privatizing sections of GuySuCo do not necessarily entail remaining in sugar production.
With the vast estate lands and equipment of GuySuCo, the options are tremendous.
However, the administration will have to remain mindful what happens to the 16,000-plus workers, Jordan said.
The bailouts will have to target what happens to workers.

Finance Minister, Winston Jordan

Last December, Wales factory closed its gates after more than a century of operations.
Rose Hall and Enmore have been recommended for closure.
GuySuCo has more than $80B in debt according to figures of last year.
The corporation has taken some steps to consolidate the estates on East Demerara.
With regards to rice, the loss of the Venezuela market will not likely see the 700,000 tonnes production levels returning immediately but the sector will continue to perform, Jordan said.
Rather, the attention will have to be placed on other crops like coconuts and fresh produce.
Already, to spur the market, moves have been made to improve the laboratories of Government and the construction of a modern abattoir.
With several forest areas opened up as a result of the concessions being given back by Barama, BaiShanLin and Demerara Timbers, Jordan sees the housing sector as a huge market.
He pointed out the importation of building materials for housing which has affected the demand for foreign currency.
With regards to investments, Jordan acknowledged that these have dropped. However, he was quick to point out that the investments were mainly in the mining and forestry sectors.
The fact remained that there was very little lands for forestry to be given out in 2015 when the Coalition government took office, he said.
Two large scale gold mines, Aurora and Troy Resources, are in full production mode and are currently taking back their monies to repay loans.
Jordan noted that these are all issues that come with investments.
He said that the country will have to carefully ensure it builds capacity for technical persons and introduce more research for agri produce, if this country is serious about building the food export sector.

Discover more from Kaieteur News

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.

Latest News