Guyanese Economist, Elson Low, echoed the call of the International Labour Organization (ILO) for the government to align the employment agenda along the lines of the emerging oil and gas industry. Low noted that, “While we acknowledge that there are a lot of people who depend on Guysuco, what we would like to see is this $6B (GuySuCo’s 2022 Budgetary allocation) being put to training for other employment opportunities for sugar workers so that those workers can really benefit from an economy that is expanding as opposed to being totally dependent upon what is really constituted Guyana’s past.”
Despite this call, the PPP government continues to recklessly pour billions into the industry without regard for workers. Low’s comment was in light of a $30B bond financing for the diversification and mechanization of the industry, executed in 2018. This plan of action targeted 147,000 tons of sugar per annum under the APNU+AFC government. This was however scrapped when the PPP was installed in August, 2020, and the bond was quickly exhausted. Additionally, the new target of 97,420 tons was quickly revised to 70,000 metric tons with no plausible justification. The year closed with 57,995 tons of sugar produced, a number far below the revised target, and evidence of the inability of the PPP to turn the industry to profitability as it falsely promised the people in the sugar belt.
By September 12, 2020, the PPP handed $5B more to its appointees at GuySuCo to reopen the estates and create jobs. This plan also failed. Four months later, during considerations of Budget Estimates for the 2022 fiscal year in Guyana’s Parliament, it was announced that the PPP will hand an additional $6B to its appointees at GuySuCo to attempt once again to bring the industry to profitability. The Committee of Supply learnt of some $1.2B set aside for GuySuCo to pay workers. Despite this allocation being approved, mismanagement and lack of an economically feasible plan for the industry has seen another projected downward revision for production target.
Only this past week, sugar workers of the Blairmont Sugar Estate took to the streets in protest for outstanding wages and benefits unpaid by GuySuCo, as the PPP regime continues to focus on sugar production rather than diversification into the Oil and Gas industry.
