VP Jagdeo says, rejects opposition’s false narrative about plans to import labour

VICE-PRESIDENT, Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo, on Thursday, said that the government, through various methods, is working to bring more Guyanese into the local labour force and fill the gaps that exist.

Dr. Jagdeo, during a press conference on Thursday, responded to claims made by the opposition that the government is looking to import some 100,000 persons to address Guyana’s labour shortage.

He clarified that when this statement was made, Foreign Secretary Robert Persaud was at the time quoting a report by the International Organisation for Migration, which stated: “It is estimated that Guyana will need approximately 160,000 workers; it can be concluded that there will be need for a minimum of 100,000 workers in Guyana to realise its full growth potential.”

That report further added that if Guyana was to harness all of its unemployed, underemployed and discouraged workers, the potential supply of labour would be only 63,500 in the medium term.

The Vice-President, however, told the conference that the government believes that it can increase the supply of domestic labour by bringing in more than 63,500 persons.
He said: “That is why we are working on special projects to get more women; we think if we can get more women and more rural women maybe hinterland women and some urban women by providing daycare for their kids then we could add probably just in female labour participation maybe 100,000 of our people to the labour force.”
Against this backdrop, he said that the government has not been moving at a full pace to import labour, as they are being judicious so as to ensure that Guyanese are brought into the labour force first.\

“We are trying to bring more people into the labour force through training programmes. We have an aggressive training programme in the Ministry of Labour; we have about 17,000 people on scholarship through the GOAL programme, there are lots of these activities going on now to bring our own people into the labour force,” the Vice-President said.