With many positives coming out of the revitalisation of the sugar industry, President Irfaan Ali has signalled that the government is now working to find the right formula to improve wages for sugar workers while enhancing their skills.
Efforts to resuscitate the sugar sector by the current PPP/C administration since 2020 resulted in a 28 per cent growth in 2023 as the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) produced some 20,204 tonnes.
President Dr Irfaan Ali during a live broadcast on Monday with Finance Minister, Dr Ashni Singh acknowledged the changing landscape of the country, as he outlined their plans to further build a sustainable sugar industry.
Shortly, workers and GuySuCo will be engaged on the way forward.
“We are aware that things are changing. That is why we are working on a system and very soon, we will be collaborating with the Union and workers so that we can find a mechanism through which we can find a way to improve the wages of these workers. Not only did more than 25,000 persons lose their livelihood during that period but since we came back, thousands of jobs have been directly and indirectly created,” Ali outlined.
According to him, the government is not satisfied with the recreation of jobs lost after the 2016 downsizing, and as a result, is also looking to revamp current operations.
“We’re not satisfied with that. We’re now working on a plan to up the skills level of our cane harvesters so that they can be part of the mechanisation project. Most importantly, we can have a new form of operation. One of the things we are examining is how we can automize productivity by moving to a more contract form within the industry itself.”
The closure of the Skeldon, Enmore and Rose Hall Sugar Estates saw 2,786 workers fired and 23,189 persons directly and indirectly affected. Since 2020, over 2,100 persons have been rehired.
In Wales, 1,251 workers were dismissed while 5,004 persons were affected directly and indirectly.
In 2020, the government assumed office to find the sector in total disarray, with estates reduced to scrap metal, forested estates and a collapse of the drainage and irrigation system.
Ali called out the former Government for political opportunism as their guiding philosophy, as he referenced utterings from former APNU/AFC Minister, Khemraj Ramjattan who was quoted in the National Assembly as saying that ‘to spend so much money on sugar is pouring good money behind bad’.
“That’s his philosophy and this is a government that sends home thousands of workers directly, affecting over 40,000 persons directly, killing economies all over this country, sending more than 25,000 persons directly and indirectly on the breadline, taking hundreds of children out of school when they close the industry. And you would believe that there would be some remorse.”
The Head of State contended that the former Government has failed to understand the intricate nature of Guyana’s economy, highlighting the example of Wales on the West Bank of Demerara, where thousands were placed on the breadline, an entire market was shut down and stores were shut after the closure of the estate.
The People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) Government has injected over $17 billion into the sugar industry and currently supporting close to 8000 workers.
Between 2016 and 2017, the A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC) regime closed several estates across Guyana – an action that displaced more than 7000 sugar workers, who were not only without jobs but who had no means to support their families and contribute to their village as well as the national economy.
However, since assuming office in August 2020, the PPP/C Government has undertaken a slew of measures to revive the sugar sector and rehired hundreds of those dismissed workers.
The PPP/C had promised in its manifesto to revive sugar and reopen these estates. However, after it was found that the assets at Wales Estate were sold out by the previous regime, the PPP/C Government announced plans to establish a Development Authority, where several major industrial operations would be undertaken. Similarly, the Enmore Sugar Estate is also being transformed into an industrial area.
On the other hand, the Rose Hall Estate was reopened last year.
