Without proper plan, reopening sugar estates would be throwing money away
– former Business Minister
By Shikema Dey, Sep 04, 2020 , Source - Kaieteur News Online - https://www.kaieteurnewsonline...throwing-money-away/
President Irfaan Ali recently announced that the new People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPP/C) administration has begun the process of reopening three of the four sugar estates that were shut down by the previous APNU+AFC coalition government.
Former Business Minister, Dominic Gaskin
Such a move would require a proper plan or else it would be an utter waste of taxpayers funds. That was the opinion shared by former Business Minister, Dominic Gaskin.
“If you reopen them without any sort of plan, that would be madness. It would be just throwing taxpayers money down the drain and putting at risk our future oil revenues,” he told Kaieteur News, during an exclusive interview.
Gaskin was part of the last administration who took the decision to shut the Rose Hall, Wales, Skeldon and Enmore sugar factories when they took office in 2015.
The Skeldon factory, East Berbice.
Sustaining the seven estates at the time was putting a major dent in the treasury, they said, and later, those four estates were shut down and more than 7,000 workers were laid off.
The PPP/C vowed to resuscitate the sugar industry, providing hope for the thousands of workers who were left without jobs and struggled to maintain their families since the closures.
With President Ali’s announcement, that vow may soon become a reality, but according to the former Business Minister, a robust plan is needed as the sugar industry has many challenges.
“I’d love to see the plan, I’d love to get a better idea of how he expects to, where he intends to get the money to invest and what sort of investments he is likely to make into the estates and how he basically plans to reopen and resuscitate those estates. I would love to see a very comprehensive plan to do that and make is profitable, otherwise he is just throwing money away,” Gaskin said.
The sugar industry, Gaskin added, is not profitable. He asked: “…why would you want to reopen sugar estates that were not profitable when they were open.”
Instead of reopening the estates, the former Minister opined that focus should be placed on the three estates that are operable to turn them into profitable ventures.
“…Because, if you can’t make those three estates that are still open profitable, how are you going to make six sugar estates profitable, especially given the fact that the ones that were closed were the ones that were the least profitable of all…those were making more losses than the others.”
To make sugar profitable, Gaskin explained that a fairly comprehensive and long-term strategic plan is integral to restructure the industry to make it viable.
At this point, he added: “I really don’t see how he can do that.”
“It is easy to talk, talk is cheap, you know, if he has some great plan, to reopen the estates and make them profitable fine, I just know that it is a lot more, it is not just as easy as going out there and making statements.”
The promised reopening of the closed estates comes with the prospect of new jobs for the thousands of Guyanese who were plunged into unemployment, and that was the selling point for the PPP/C on the campaign trail.
However, Gaskin was of the view that simply reopening the estates to employ “does not make sense.”
“I am all for jobs,” he said “but the problem is why are you tying people down to an industry that is not profitable, an industry where in which we are competing with other international players making sugar much more efficiently than we are.”
Such a move, Gaskin said would not be “logical.”
Further, Gaskin stated what he would also like to see is a comprehensive plan for job creation in the communities where those estates were shut – jobs that see Guyanese being engaged in activities that are profitable, globally competitive and those that can create sustainable industries.
And such a plan should be made public, he continued, citing that it would take billions of taxpayer dollars to fund the reopening bill.
“If you are going to take the taxpayers money to reopen the estates, just to create jobs, then I think the taxpayers are entitled to understand at least what the plan is and how long is it going to take before they see a return on the money that is going to be invested in those estates.”
Agriculture Minister, Zulfikar Mustapha during his meeting with GAWU and NAACIE officials
The Moco-Moco hydropower station, Rupununi Region Nine.
