-President Ali discloses; says sugar workers will be retrained, retooled
AFTER the current People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) government breathed life back into the sugar industry which was battered by the previous coalition administration, President, Dr Irfaan Ali has announced that another 5,000 hectares of land in Skeldon, Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne) will be reintegrated into the sugar production equation.
President Ali made this announcement while delivering the feature address at the official opening of the $1.2 billion Republic Bank Williamsburg Branch in Rose Hall, Corentyne, Berbice.

As he reflected on Berbice’s economy and how it is critical for the traditional sectors to be integrated into it, Dr Ali pointed out that the sugar, rice and forestry sectors are key players.
“A few years ago, just in excess of four years ago, we saw this traditional economic base of Berbice, taking a deep dive based on the policy agenda, or policy formulation of the then government.”

For context, in 2017, the former APNU+AFC Coalition Government announced the closure of several sugar estates across the country, leaving thousands of persons without jobs or sources of income. The move saw four sugar estates being closed and over 7,000 sugar workers losing their jobs.
The Rose Hall Estate, prior to its closure, was “home” to some 2,500 sugar workers, but 1,181 of those were retrenched. The remaining workers from the Rose Hall Estate were transferred to Blairmont Estate over in West Coast Berbice and Albion Estate on the Corentyne.

According to President Ali: “What we’ve [PPP Government] been able to achieve in the last three years, it is nothing short of being remarkable. We’ve been [able] to reopen the sugar industry. We’re reinvesting in modernisation of our sugar lands.”
The President further stated that this is aimed at becoming more sustainable.

He added: “As I speak to you now, we’ve just concluded an arrangement to have another 5,000 hectares of land in Skeldon to be reintegrated into the sugar production equation and we’re going to move to having those lands mechanized and we’ve also sourced a new variety of canes that will be planted on those lands.”
The Head-of-State pointed out that such will aid in achieving higher target levels next year.

“In doing this, we understand that the nature of the human resource pool must also change to meet the transformation and modernisation that we are investing in the sugar industry.”
Dr Ali further explained: “That is why with the modernisation in the field we’re discussing plans and how we will retrain and retool our sugar workers to better function in this newly- organised sector; but, more importantly, how we want to integrate them into the other aspects of expansion that will take place here in Berbice.”

While underscoring how Region Six is undergoing a rapid development in both traditional and non-traditional sectors, Dr Ali said that a financial ecosystem was being built that responds to an integration vision of the PPP/C administration.
“An integrated vision is to find that balance whereby the revenue from the new frontier of oil and gas is used to grow the economy and build productivity and expand the economic footing which the government stands while at the same time building, recreating reorienting and reorganising the traditional sector to become more competitive and to optimise itself along the value chain so that they will not only meet the requirements of our country, but that they will be sustainable, long into the future,” President Ali remarked.