The Irfaan Ali lead installed People’s Progressive Party Civic Government has now inadvertently accepted the fact that the European Union funded US$12.5 million Enmore sugar packaging facility has failed. Yesterday on the sidelines of the International Energy Conference and Expo, President Ali announced that the facility will be converted into a state of the art machine shop and pipe yard to service the oil and gas industry.
Commissioned by then President Bharrat Jagdeo in 2011, the plant had never reached its full capacity of 80,000 tonnes of package sugar per year, due mainly to low sugar production, the lack of markets for packaged sugar and poor management. In 2011, GuySuCo was packaging roughly 8000 tonnes of sugar and by 2014, it was packaging around 12,000 tonnes annually at the Enmore facility. The investment will, reportedly, create some 500 jobs and will see an eventual investment of US$60 million in the first five years.
The APNU+AFC Coalition while in office had proposed similar initiatives in its diversification plan for the Enmore Estate and GuySuCo in general. However, these initiatives were met with strong criticisms and objections from the PPPC, which at the time was pushing for sugar workers to remain in the field despite the harsh conditions. In January of 2018 then Public Telecommunications Minister Catherine Hughes was quoted in the Demerarawaves Online News as saying that the United States (US)-headquartered Pepsi-Cola is among several companies interested in investing in the Guyana Sugar Corporation, “We got some big companies like Pepsi Cola…,” she told a meeting of former sugar workers at Enmore.
Hughes had also indicated that there were expressions of interest from companies in India and Trinidad as well as locally, Nand Persaud Rice Mills. She said those “big companies” have told the Government that “we are working on the numbers, we coming”. She also signaled quite strongly that the Enmore, East Demerara Estate, operations would be sold to Demerara Distillers Limited (DDL) to satisfy its demand for molasses to produce rum.
The APNU+AFC Coalition prior to winning the 2015 elections had blasted the PPPC Government handling of GuySuCo: “It is enough to point to some glaring blunders: the awarding of the Skeldon Sugar factory to a Chinese contractor when an Indian or Brazilian contractor (sugar producing countries) could have done a better job at a much lower price; the failure of the PPP Administration to protect sugar workers’ interests through contractual arrangements regarding warranties and payment terms; the questionable arrangements surrounding this deal; other opaque deals including the Enmore packaging plant and supply of pumps involving Surendra Engineering, the Indian Company.” The party was also critical of the placing of political appointees to top positions in GuySuCo and the loss of its once competent engineers and middle management have put GuySuCo on life support.
During its 2020 elections campaign the PPPC opposition made a string of vote-getting promises to the Guyanese people, including a 50% salary increase for public servants and the reopening of non-performing sugar estates. Sadly, these among many other deceitful promises have not been kept by the Ali regime.
