Government has committed to ensuring that the ailing sugar industry remains in operation, although it plans to continue cutting subventions that assist in its day-to-day operation.
This announcement was made by Minister of State, Joseph Harmon, on Sunday during a meeting with residents of Den Amstel, West Coast Demerara to discuss issues facing the community.
PPP Executive member, Dr Roger Luncheon
Harmon said many untruths about the industry’s future are being peddled by various sections of society, including the Opposition Peoples Progressive Party (PPP); but, “We believe, in this administration, that sugar will stay. Sugar will be the major plank in Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) and in this country.”
The minister told residents that Government cannot continue to bail out GuySuCo, because that action would continue to restrict spending in other key areas of development; but, “It is our plan to ensure that the sugar industry is restructured, so that sugar remains what it is today — a major foreign exchange earner and a major employment of people.”
Harmon accused the PPP Administration of being too afraid, when in Government, to make hard choices in regard to the future of sugar; but he said the coalition administration has taken steps to ensure that this process begins.
“We cannot say we will fund one sector and shut down the rest… We have to balance the issues that affect us as a nation,” he said.
Minister of State, Joseph Harmon
He noted that, for too long, the sugar industry has placed a heavy burden on the Consolidated Fund. Outlining the steps Government plans to take to keep sugar alive, Harmon said the priority is to re-organize the way labour is dealt with in the industry.
“We will have to consolidate some estates. We will have to reorganize the allocation of resources. And this is because, every single year, there is a huge call on the national treasury for (sums of money) to be spent on GuySuCo,” Harmon explained.
Salvage Sugar
Former Cabinet Secretary, PPP Executive member Dr Roger Luncheon, said his party has insisted that the sugar industry must be salvaged. “We insist not only is sugar too big to fail, but what needs to be done is doodle. We don’t have to pull this façade around these imaginations that characterise what was done in 2008 in many capitals of the world,” Luncheon told a media conference on Monday.
He highlighted that, in the PPP’s 2015 Manifesto, a promise was made to have some $20 billion allocated to the sugar industry to reverse its fortunes and return it to financial viability and profitability.
Luncheon is requesting that Government justify embarking on a plan that would have had seismic economic implications for the livelihoods of a great mass of the country’s population. He said that such actions have been unheard of in the rest of the world.
“Where are the studies used to justify (any plan to close the sugar industry) and the feasibility of specific options?” he asked. “This is not an issue just of politics; this is an issue that is so important to tens of thousands of Guyanese (that it has implications for) the whole economy,” he declared.
As it stands, the industry is facing its toughest times, with production being recorded at just over 180,000 tonnes last year — the lowest GuySuCo has recorded since 1990.
The Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union (GAWU) has criticised planned efforts to downsize the industry, stating that it would affect the lives and futures of people and their many communities.
The PPP has, likewise, called on Government to conduct a social impact assessment before making a decision on the future of GuySuCo. That party contends that any more closures or privatisations of other sugar estates may lead to chaos countrywide.
A decision was taken last year to close the oldest estate, Wales, on the West Bank of Demerara. The operations of that estate have since been partially integrated with those of the Uitvlugt Estate.
Workers attached to the now defunct Wales Estate are still awaiting full payment of outstanding severance package benefits.
Government had said the Wales Estate was closed after billions of dollars were accrued in losses over the years. At high-level sugar consultations held last year between Government, GuySuCo, the Union and the Opposition, the Administration had disclosed that only three estates would be kept functional.
A draft ‘white paper’ on the Future of the Sugar Industry is set to be laid in the National Assembly on May 8, 2017.
