The Guyana Sugar Corporation has been allocated $2 billion for critical capital works. This was announced by Finance Minister Dr Ashni Singh during the presentation of Budget 2021 at the at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre (ACCC).
He noted that GuySuCo is diversifying has to move away from its reliance on the state to making enough money that it is able to self-generate its own revenue and pay for itself.
During an interview earlier this week, Chief Executive Officer, Sasenarine Singh in an interview with this publication had said that in 2021 GuySuCo has to continue its efforts to fix the factories, conduct land preparation, and revamp the cane transport system.
Added to this is the work that has to go into GuySuCo’s land preparation and into the timely transport of sugar cane from the fields to the factories. Singh explained why the timely transport of cane is so important.
The former Government had closed the Wales Estate in 2016, and subsequently shut down the Enmore, Rose Hall and Skeldon estates. The downsizing of the sugar industry had resulted in only the Uitvlugt, Blairmont and Albion estates currently operating.
After taking office last year, the PPP/C Government announced, in the 2020 Emergency Budget presented in September 2020, that some $5 billion would be injected into the sugar industry for the phased reopening of the closed estates.
An initial $3 billion was earmarked for critical works for the remainder of 2020, while an assessment was simultaneously carried out on the state of the assets and the level of reinvestments needed at the Enmore, Rose Hall and Skeldon estates for their reopening.
