–Dr. Jagdeo says

— reaffirms commitment to sugar industry, quashing opposition rhetoric of industry being left behind

ALL categories of workers will benefit from improved wages, expanded opportunities, and the conversion of part-time workers into full-time employees, People’s Progressive Party (PPP) General Secretary and Guyana’s Vice President, Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo has assured citizens.

Responding to concerns raised by citizens, Dr. Jagdeo, during his Thursday press conference at Freedom House, Georgetown, said that the government’s development agenda leaves no one behind, quashing the opposition’s rhetoric that only select groups will benefit.

He said, “The CSOs, the part-time workers, they have called to find out whether they will get increases too and the answer is yes. And for those part-time workers who have been expressing a desire to go on to a full-time job and the CSOs too, the answer is again, yes. We are looking to convert a lot of the part-time workers to full-time employees of the government. There are so many opportunities.”

In various sectors, for instance, in health and the building out of 12 national hospitals, Dr. Jagdeo said that the hospitals will need 6,000 new workers, thus creating opportunities to absorb part-time staff into permanent, benefit-secured jobs.

 PROTECTING AND DIVERSIFYING SUGAR

Addressing persistent opposition claims that the sugar industry will be abandoned, Dr. Jagdeo reaffirmed the PPP/C’s commitment to sustaining the sugar industry while simultaneously creating new employment avenues in sugar-dependent communities.

He said, “Sugar will only survive if the PPP is in office. APNU made it clear they’re going to shut down sugar.”

What the Vice President is referencing is A Partnership for National Unity (APNU)’s Leon Saul, in July, outlining the party’s plans to torch one of Guyana’s most defining industries—sugar.

Saul’s latest pitch for APNU received a lot of criticism since the party, while in office from 2015-2020 along with the Alliance For Change (AFC), shuttered four sugar estates, resulting in over 7,000 sugar workers being put on the breadline.

Prior to those utterances, APNU’s Leader Aubrey Norton, said that part of his party’s plans, if elected, is to convert the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) into a house-construction company, and utilise its lands for other activities.

Dr. Jagdeo accused the opposition of attempting to distort history, especially within the sugar belt.

“Sugar will survive, but we will also create a whole range of new opportunities in those communities to create alternative jobs for people who were formerly employed in sugar or still employed in the sugar so they have choices,” he said.

Dr. Jagdeo then referenced the 1000s of jobs that will be created by the upcoming industrial park in Enmore, East Coast Demerara (ECD), which already has over US$500 million in investments lined up.

At Wales, West Bank Demerara (WBD), the completion of the gas-to-energy project will anchor a major industrial complex, providing wide-scale employment.

He also highlighted the expansion of agro-industrial initiatives in Skeldon Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne): “In Berbice, in the Skeldon area, we’ve already made it clear GuySuCo has 26,000 acres of land along with about nearly 40,000 acres of land that are owned by private crops and the road from Orealla to Moleson Creek, which would open up more lands. That that whole area would be developed into an agro-industrial complex, thousands of acres of land.”