THE new Board of Directors for the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GUYSUCO) has been appointed with Mr. Shaik Baksh, former Education Minister, as chairman.

This was disclosed Saturday by Agriculture Minister, Dr. Leslie Ramsammy.
The new Board, over the last several days, has been engaged in orientation meetings with several stakeholders.
The Agriculture Minister noted that the other appointees include:
* Mr. Dunstan Barrow, Chairman of Board of Directors for the Linden Enterprise Network (LEN);
* Dr. Dindyal Permaul, Chief Executive Officer of the Guyana Livestock Development Authority (GLDA);
* Mr. Keith Burrowes, Executive Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Guyana Office for Investment (Go-Invest);
* Badri Persaud, Managing Director for the Guyana Oil (Guyoil); and Geeta Singh-Knight who also served on the previous board.
According to Dr. Ramsammy, one additional board member is still to confirm acceptance, but is currently unable to. “This will be done in a few weeks,” he said.
The current CEO, Dr. Raj Singh, sits on the board as an ex-officio member.
Nine individuals had been identified to sit on the Board of Directors some weeks ago.
The life of the existing board was extended by six months to June 30 and the new Board’s appointment was scheduled to come on stream from July 1. Under new management, GUYSUCO is expected to lead accelerated progress to ensure the industry’s turnaround.
The sugar industry is projected to record an improvement of 15.6 percent in output to 215,910 tonnes in 2014, and a whopping $6B has been allocated to the sector in the 2014 Budget, given the industry’s important role in national development.
Among the measures to be undertaken to ensure a turnaround of the industry, which the allocation addresses, are: increased production and lower cost of production; diversified target markets, and expansion of value-added production.
In 2013, sugar exports accounted for 8.3 percent of total exports valued at US$112.2M, and the industry contributed 3.9 percent of the country’s Gross Domestic Product.