In a statement released yesterday, the EU disclosed that it paid out more than 25 million euros ($7.2 billion) in assistance to Guyana. It said a payment of 19,338,400 euros ($5.6 billion) was made as part of the EU Multi-annual Sugar Programme 2007-2010.
According to EU, the assistance to the sugar industry is provided through a direct budget support mechanism and the disbursements are made based upon the achievement of performance indicators that monitor the implementation of the sector policy on sugar. The statement comes on the heels of recent comments made by Agriculture Minister, Robert Persaud that the EU price cut in sugar has significantly hurt the local sugar industry.
Further, the EU said that another payment of 6.13 million euros ($1.7 billion) was made in the framework of the Poverty Reduction Budget support to Guyana which commenced in 2004 and has an envelope of 41.2 million euros ($12.019 billion). It said too that the programme is executed through the disbursement of fixed and variable tranches directly to the national budget to bridge the budgetary gap. To date, the EU said, a total sum of 33.43 million euros ($9.7 billion) out of 41.2 million euros has been disbursed for that purpose.
