Serious interest to save the sugar industry was noticeably absent across both administrations
Reference articles on GuySuCo by Tony Vieira (Feb 8) and Devendra Kumar (Feb 9)! They both lamented on the shortage and competency of labour (technical, managerial, and manual) as factors in the decline in productivity of the sugar industry. That is indisputable - an acknowledged shortage of labour by the government and private sector of lack of skills set across all industries. Some two decades ago, Ravi Dev and I and others had discussed the future of the industry. Ravi endorsed the idea of recruitment of labour from India and advised I look into the possibility of bringing sugar workers to meet the needs of the estates. I visited sugar factories, met with workers, and queried their interests to work in Guyana. Great interest was shown to come and work, even technical and managerial staff were willing to make the journey. I discussed the matter with officials of GuySuCo and the Ministry under different managements and governments. They all gave the go ahead to bring workers from India but offered no resources for implementation. It was lip service; there was no serious interest to save the industry.
When the coalition announced that three estates would be shuttered, Dev and I again intervened to save the industry and jobs of eight thousand. Dev urged that I again travel to India to recruit investors in another effort to save the industry. I went to India in 2015 and again in 2016 and succeeded in getting a group of investors (who own profitable sugar mills in Maharashtra and two African countries) to acquire the planned closed estates and even all of GuySuCo. Dev wrote to then President Granger requesting a meeting to discuss the matter. Granger advised that he meet with the Agriculture Minister and two other Ministers and instructed the Ministers to meet with Dev. Dev met them, taking two prominent individuals with him to the meeting. As Dev related, there was no interest in saving the estates or GuySuCo. Our appeal to government to give us a chance to bring investors to save the estates to be closed and the jobs of the many thousands was rebuffed.
Post-coalition, advice was offered on labour recruitment and management on rescuing GuySuCo. Government agreed but offered no resources for implementation of any suggested plan; it was all lip service! Several experts on the industry – good people from the likes of Tony Vieira, Nanda Gopaul and Pandit Vishnu Panday - all the skilled and experienced technical people - offered their views on turning around GuySuCo. For whatever reasons, they were all rebuffed. They have all washed their hands off GuySuCo. Government knows and recognizes what needs to be done to save GuySuCo but is not taking the right measures. You can’t do the same thing again and again and expect different results each time. GuySuCo can be turned around. The will and interest to rescue or turn around the industry, to do the right thing, has not been amply demonstrated. It is inexplicable! Good people have been walking away from the industry!
Sincerely,
Vishnu Bisram