Just shy of 100 Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) workers were yesterday honoured for their years of service to the company, which Minister of Agriculture Zulfikar Mustapha said would be hiring some 3,000 persons as government moves to revive the industry.
The long-service awards ceremony was held at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre, at Liliendaal, where 95 workers were honoured. The employees who received awards were said to have worked over 40 years at the company. Awardees included a number of persons from Albion, Blairmont and Uitvlugt estates along with several employees from GuySuCo’s head office.
While delivering the feature address at the ceremony, Minister of Agriculture Zulfikar Mustapha thanked the employees for their contribution over the years. He noted that GuySuCo used to employ about 16,000 persons with over 50,000 person directly dependent on the sugar industry.
He stated that although the sugar industry continues to employ thousands of Guyanese, there has been a reduction of the figures mentioned over the past couple of years. During that time the former administration fired thousands as part of its efforts to scale down the corporation to make it profitable. Mustapha subsequently repeated the People’s Progressive Party/ Civic (PPP/C) government’s plans to reopen the sugar estates that were closed and to continue to provide employment to Guyanese citizens.
“I want to reiterate from the government’s perspective that sugar is here to stay and we will see the resuscitation of GuySuCo…. And we will ensure that GuySuCo once again prospers. I want to reiterate this point that we’ll continue to invest in GuySuCo in 2021 as we continue to prioritise the sugar industry of Guyana to develop it and make it one of the model [industries] around the Caribbean,” he said.
He noted that works have already begun to facilitate the reopening of the Skeldon, Rose Hall and Enmore estates.
He promised that by 2021, more than 3,000 persons will be given employment in the sugar industry. “So far we have seen over 750 persons being rehired for the year 2020 and this, I know for a fact, over the years, GuySuCo will employ more of those workers. Over 3,000 more workers will be reemployed at GuySuCo,” he said.
