Work is forging ahead on the transformation of the East Demerara Sugar Estate lands and former Enmore packaging plant into an industrial zone and machining project, respectively, with a bridge and some roads nearly complete while repairs to the plant have commenced.
The Sunday Stabroek visited the area on Friday for an update on the project that government says will transform the East Coast into a business and housing development zone equipped to provide ample jobs and homes for residents of the area.
Some 661.78 acres of the former estate lands will be converted into an industrial zone that will see factories producing a range of products, aimed at making Guyana competitive in manufacturing, and the infrastructure is currently being developed to facilitate this, President Irfaan Ali has said.
“It is for heavy industrial, commercial and manufacturing facilities…,” he had explained to this newspaper.
At the former sugar packaging plant, representatives said that repairs are currently underway in preparation for the facility to be transformed to accommodate the machining project that Guysons and K+B Investments Inc (GK+B) had invested some $7 billion (US$35 million) last year.
“Repairs are currently underway,” a representative of the company said while informing that more comprehensive updates will be forthcoming.
The GK+B development is one of the first projects that had started up in the area.
At the 2022 International Energy Conference, the companies announced their joint partnership, which President Ali said then will create tremendous job opportunities for those laid off from the closure of the sugar estate. This estate was to be reopened by this government but plans changed.
“These are highly skilled jobs being created and the company has committed to commence that process almost immediately, to have the eventual 500 employees trained and ready to take up jobs in the company,” he said.
“We cannot be narrow-minded. I keep saying to every Guyanese, we have to up our level of thinking, [it] cannot be contained in a box anymore. It is a different era and a different scope that we operate in.”
The President also announced that government will be investing heavily in creating a road network. The machining project has not moved as quickly as had been expected.
A subsidiary of Surinamese-owned, Rudisa Inc, Caribbean International Distributors Inc (CIDI), had also signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Guyana Office for Investment (G-Invest) for the development of a US$35 million agro-processing facility at Enmore.
A joint release from G-Invest and Rudisa, released by the Department of Public Informa-tion on the day of the signing, stated that the facility is expected to engage in the production and packaging of various products including milk, natural fruit juices, water, and bread products, such as hamburger rolls, biscuits, cookies, croissants, bagels and donuts, to supply Guyana’s local and export markets.
The release added that the facility will employ approximately 600 people and will be a significant boost to local fruit and dairy farmers, who will be the chief suppliers, while taking note of Guyana’s capacity for the large-scale production of packaged fruit and dairy products.
In the areas where sugarcane was once grown, the lands have been cleared and many roads have been cut and preparatory works for others have also begun.
Excavators, front end loaders, graders, bulldozers, cranes, and other heavy machinery were seen working while others were parked. It is unclear if the parked machines were functional.
Concrete bridge
A large concrete bridge has been built to connect the east and west areas.
Meanwhile, in the former estate housing scheme, the roads have been levelled and filled with sand and aggregate.
Given that the 4,702.5 hectare-area once was a sugar cane estate that provided jobs to several hundreds who were left unemployed when the APNU+AFC shuttered the facility, President Ali expressed the hope that employment and investment opportunities would be created for them and thousands of others. At its height, the estate employed around 2,000 people.
With the Central Housing and Planning Authority facilitating the infrastructural work, tenders for the project – Infrastructure Development Works at Enmore/Foulis Commercial Industrial Area, Lots 1-6 – were in April of this year opened at the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board
The work includes clearing, building roads, foot paths, canals, and engineering service reserves. Some 12 companies submitted billion-dollar bids.
Minister of Housing and Water, Collin Croal, explained that there is currently a master plan, but that work will be done in phases. Showing an illustration of the plan, Croal explained that within the industrial zone there will be three categories – commercial, light industrial, and heavy industrial.
Thirty-seven companies will have the opportunity to invest in the commercial areas, about 30 in the light industrial zone, and around 34 in the heavy industrial.
Croal said that Ali, a former Minister of Housing himself, had pointed out that land on the East Bank Demerara was limited and that the focus should be on finding other areas with land space to develop. “You have now this East Coast Demerara shift…,” he said.
“With the design of the East Coast Demerara, you see us focused on overall urban planning. There are plans for creation of lots for housing, but there is also preparation for having this [the Enmore Estate area] transformed into a zone to create thousands of jobs, have opportunities for investment for both locals and foreign companies and… development,” the minister added.
Plans entailing the conversion of the former estate into an agro-industrial area and the setting aside of land for housing and other purposes were made in 2021.
Croal had issued an update saying that infrastructure work – clearance, internal roads and access bridges – was being carried out in preparation for opening up the land strictly for commercial and industrial purposes. The site is currently being accessed through the corporation’s old housing scheme where a road is being built.
The Minister of Housing reminded that work would be done in phases and that by the time the Wales gas-to-shore project was completed, so would most of the industrial zone’s development work.
It is hoped that reliable and affordable power from the gas-to-shore facility will see people wanting to invest in manufacturing here.
