Holding firm to the position that sugar here is still viable, coupled with the expectation that this year’s production will reach the 100,000-tonne mark, President Irfaan Ali on Monday announced that a sugar refinery will be built at the shuttered East Demerara Estate at Enmore.
“Just to let you know that we are going to invest in GuySuCo because GuySuCo can be profitable. We are now working on a plan through which we will get the 100,000 tonnes this year. But more importantly, we have an investor who is in the final stage of an investment decision soon, to convert the Enmore sugar estate that is now closed, into a sugar refinery, to refine the brown sugar there,” the President told the Private Sector Commission’s Annual Corporate Dinner, held at the Marriott Hotel, in Kingston, Georgetown on Monday.
He informed that the factory will have “a capacity of doing 1,800,000 metric tonnes annually. So whatever we can supply we will supply, then we will have to fill the gap so refining would occur.”
Ali did not name the investor and also did not expound on what he meant by government filling the gaps and if that meant government itself would be purchasing additional cane.
The President is optimistic that “hundreds of upscale jobs will be created there” and that there will be “more opportunities for transport and logistics again” to serve the sugar refinery and that the project would be operational by 2026.
“So all of these things, I am telling you, is on the cards to come in two years’ time,” he declared, putting the private sector on notice that they will have “a very important role” to play.
Government last year said that it would 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,” Ali had said.
It is for heavy industrial, commercial and manufacturing facilities…,” he had explained to this newspaper.
At the former sugar packaging plant at Enmore, representatives had said that repairs were underway in preparation for the facility to be transformed to accommodate the machining project in whicht Guysons and K+B Investments Inc (GK+B) had invested some $7 billion (US$35 million) last year.
Stabroek News understands that the sugar refinery will in no way affect this project.
Minister of Housing and Water, Collin Croal, had explained that there is currently a master plan for the former estate lands, 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 area, about 30 in the light industrial zone, and around 34 in the heavy industrial zone.
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 birthed 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.
