Opposition Leader, Dr Bharrat Jagdeo on Thursday said that Business Minister Dominic Gaskin’s claim that some 5,275 jobs will be created in this year through the Guyana Office for Investment (Go-Invest) is “fictitious.”
“Gaskin says 5725 jobs are expected to be created this year through go invest with $154B investment. Well they revised this down from $184M, but this is a fictitious figure too and the jobs being created here too are fictitious,” he told media operatives during a press conference.
Jagdeo posited that approximately 25,000 people have lost their jobs since the APNU-AFC Government came into power, a mere three years ago.
“I was looking at this, how many people have actually lost their jobs since the coalition government took office and it is, if you look at the formal sectors, the easily measured ones it is close to about 10,000 and an informal survey about the retail outlets…will show maybe another 15,000 have lost their jobs…Secondly we don’t know of any major job creating initiative now,” he posited while noting that at this rate the country as a whole “will get progressively worse.”
Referencing the almost 5000 jobs lost with the sacking of sugar workers from the multiple estates that have been closed, Jagdeo said that their disposable income “will not feed into the economy. It will affect almost everyone.”
Gaskin had reported in the media that some $154B in investments were anticipated and will contribute to the over 5,000 jobs.
He had noted that Go-Invest has already seen interest in a number of sectors, highlighting that several foreign investors have also shown interest in servicing the oil and gas sector, and many businesses have shown interest in the agriculture and construction areas among other areas. (Ramona Luthi)
