- Aims to create the East Coast into a hub for opportunities – Jagdeo
Vice President Dr Bharrat Jagdeo during an interview with the Guyanese Critic on Tuesday said, the government believes in making rational decisions that will benefit the people of Guyana.
The Vice President was at the time speaking on the Government’s decision to lease the Enmore packaging plant to a local company that has partnered with US-based K+B Industries to establish the Enmore Manufacturing facility to cater to the oil and gas sector.
He explained that a survey was done and it was revealed that not many people were interested in the sugar industry but needed more job opportunities.
As such, he said the government decided to move the packing plant from Enmore to Albion and lease this plant to private investors in exchange for the creation of jobs for residents on the East Coast.
“It's not a model that we have been shy about, and we have no apologies for trying to generate more employment for people,”
Jagdeo said. The Government is also embarking on other initiatives on the East Coast that will see job creation.
“In the budget, we have monies to build an industrial estate at the back of Foulis Enmore, that can accommodate people from Buxton, Strathspey…so these three initiatives alone will generate close to 4000 jobs on the East Coast,”
he stated. He explained that the Government could not reopen the Wales Sugar Estate since it was dismantled by the previous Government. However, the government has committed to ensuring that jobs are made available when the Gas-to-energy project comes on stream. In addition, the government is aiming to diversify the Skeldon Sugar Estate to generate a series of opportunities for persons living in that area. The Vice President also revealed that
“We had several proposals to do electricity from the coal generation, we’re thinking about using the hemp legislation to convert some of the land into hemp and aquaculture and going back into sugar on a smaller scale.”
