–Vice-President announces during outreach to region

SOME 3,000 temporary jobs will be allocated to residents of Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne) in the coming weeks, Vice-President Dr Bharrat Jagdeo announced during separate meetings with fisherfolk and representatives of the business community in the region on Sunday.

The announcement by the Vice-President was greeted with applause from the well-attended meetings at the Classic International Hotel and Resort in Skeldon, one of the communities that were severely affected by the estates closure in the region by the former A Partnership for National Unity + Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) Government.

Dr Jagdeo said the people will be employed three days per week at schools, hospitals and government offices and will receive a salary of $40,000 per month.

On assumption of office, the People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPP/C) Government was confronted with the situation where some 30,000 persons had lost their jobs under the APNU+AFC Government, and another 40,000 more when the same government closed the country on the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“In the short-term, we have to try to get people re-employed so that is why in this year’s budget, we made a decision that we will give people temporary employment so that they can have a family income,” the Vice-President said.

The 3,000 jobs in Region Six are more than the number of people laid off at the Skeldon estate.

Some 800 temporary jobs have already been allocated to Region Two and the same number in Region 10, to ease the impact of the high cost of living on the residents there.

The PPP/C had promised to create 50,000 jobs in its first term in office, and since its assumption of power in August 2020, the party has been working diligently to fulfil its manifesto commitments to the people, Vice-President Jagdeo said.

The government is also co-investing in the construction of an agro-processing factory at Black Bush Polder that will create scores of jobs for Berbicans and has received several similar proposals for investment in Berbice, the Vice-President told representatives of the business community.

This aside, he said the government is working with swamp shrimp farmers to increase production to one million kilogrammes, four times the amount currently being produced, so that they can amply satisfy market demands while at the same time create more job opportunities.

“So, if anybody has an employment-creating activity in this region, then we can sit and co-invest with them,” the Vice-President said.

He had previously explained that the government is working to attract investors to Regions Three, Five, Six, 10 and in the hinterland by offering them incentives to invest in these regions.

The majority of investors, since the discovery of oil in Guyana, have been flocking Regions Three and Four, to the extent that these two regions are now experiencing labour shortages, Dr Jagdeo said.