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Portion of oil money to help reform sugar industry –Finance Minister
In order to avoid the Dutch disease—a phenomenon that sees the rapid development of one sector and the speedy decline of others—Finance Minister, Winston Jordan, said he could definitely foresee a portion of the nation’s oil wealth going towards reforming the ailing sugar sector.
Finance Minister, Winston Jordan
During an exclusive interview, the economist said that in the context of the nation’s need for diversification, the APNU+AFC Government would not only push for the sugar production to be more efficient, but also for the development of its byproducts.
Jordan said, “So sugar is not dead and it is not about to die. But we have to think differently than we did before about the future of this industry. This sector has to become competitive lest it become a drain on our oil resources. We have to move away from the historical dreams…The way sugar was configured, we can’t continue that way…”
The Finance Minister said that the current sugar production is selling to some extent but there still remains a serious gap between the high cost of production and the little revenues earned.
Jordan said, “Sugar is not going to get out of the red in a hurry. The public has to be aware that notwithstanding the opposition’s cries, the government and NICIL are paying a heavy price to have 10,000 workers in place in the sugar industry. “We are subs
Opposition Leader, Bharrat Jagdeo
idizing the workers and the bond is paying for day to day operations, retooling of the industry and so forth. So sugar is on life support at the moment.”
Jordan said it is envisioned that the three estates, Blairmont in the West Bank Berbice, Albion-Rose Hall in East Berbice and the Uitvlugt-Wales estate in West Demerara, will stabilize at about 147,000 tonnes by 2022 or thereabout.
Hopefully, the cost of production and inherent deficit, will be reduced with the introduction of new equipment.
REOPENING ESTATES
Since the government closed the Skeldon, Rose Hall, Enmore and Wales estates, the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) has been promising its supporters that if elected to office; it will reopen the estates and make sugar great again.
But Jordan said that such promises would not materialize. Jordan noted that the closed estates were being cannibalized by the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) prior to their closure. He said that efforts had to be made to stop that too.
Jordan even disclosed that some of the investors who were being courted to buy the closed estates were no longer interested, and even walked away after seeing the aging state of the factories.
“…All of this proves that we cannot continue the same way with sugar and if (Opposition Leader, Bharrat ) Jagdeo thinks he will take oil money and frizz it away or have his acolytes frizz it away the same way he did with (taxpayers money) on the (US$200M) Skeldon (Sugar Factory) then he has another thing to think about.
“I don’t think the society is in any mood for that,” the Minister concluded. (Kiana Wilburg)
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