THE Private Sector Commission (PSC) remains up in arms over Government’s decision to scale down the operations of the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) – the livewire of the sugar industry.
In a statement on Wednesday, the PSC bemoaned Government’s decision to pursue closure of sugar estates as the only solution to the crisis in the industry.
For decades, billions of taxpayers’ dollars have been pumped into what is now considered the ailing sugar industry.

In unveiling Government’s White Paper on the Future of the Sugar Industry in Guyana to the National Assembly last May, Agriculture Minister Noel Holder said the future of the industry lies in a smaller sector, with reduced losses and cash deficits but coupled with a separate and profitable diversified enterprise, which would ensure a viable future.
According to the White Paper, the “New GuySuCo” would only consist of three estates and three sugar factories.

The estates would be Blairmont on the West Bank Berbice, Albion-Rose Hall in East Berbice and the Uitvlugt-Wales estate in West Demerara. Since the unveiling of the State Paper, GuySuCo has followed through with the strategic plan but the PSC is not pleased.
The PSC recalled that in August, it proposed to the Government that a Public-Private Partnership be established for investment in and management of selected estates as a probable and effective alternative to closure.

“Sugar has been the major employer of Guyanese for over a century and until these drastic measures were taken, continued to be the largest employer of our labour force. Yet, unbelievably, our Government has no definitive plan to rescue the industry nor save its workers from unemployment and from the ensuing hardship which will inevitably result,” the PSC posited.

It added that while the decision to scale down the industry has been announced, Government should recognise the ensuing hardships placed on the communities served by and dependent on sugar and the consequential damage to the economy as a whole. “We ask once more that our Government should think again.”