Pushpa Balgobin

Minister of Agriculture, Dr Leslie Ramsammy is hopeful that the 5,000 tonnes of fertilizer coming from Venezuela as part of the PetroCaribe Agreement will get here within days.

With the government’s mobile wave wall seawall extension almost completed along the Rupert Craig Highway from Liliendaal to Kitty the byways, some residents are unsure if it will do the job and have adopted a wait-and-see attitude.

Call centre company, Qualfon, yesterday embarked on a massive expansion of its business here which will see US$4M ($800M) spent in the first phase on a complex at Providence with a promise of 6,000 new jobs in about three years.

At approximately US$30 million, the South African firm Bosch Engineering is finalising work on six tasks at the problem-plagued Skeldon Factory and taxpayers will have to foot the bill after the Chinese firm originally contracted signed off with myriad issues still unresolved.

With grinding pushed back yet again at the Skeldon factory, the Guyana Sugar Corporation is falling significantly behind on the crucial second crop target.

The construction of the one-kilometre stretch of mobile wave wall on the seawall, along the Rupert Craig Highway from Liliendaal to Conversation Tree, is expected to be concluded in early September, almost doubling the original time frame for the project.

President Donald Ramotar managed to garner the most votes to the PPP’s Central Committee but he was closely followed by former President Bharrat Jagdeo while party veteran Dr Frank Anthony retained the third place that he had unexpectedly clinched in 2008 and Anil Nandlall zoomed up the rankings to fourth place.

The People’s Progressive Party wrapped up its 30th Congress yesterday revealing to delegates that the total cost for the event was just over $30.1 million.

As the Guyana Mangrove Restoration Project (GMRP) concludes its final year of official funding from the European Union, the acreage replanted is only around half of what was projected for the three-year $1 billion scheme intended to shore up sea defences and boost afforestation.

Head of the Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union, Komal Chand is urging the Guyana Sugar Corporation to be more proactive in providing information to stakeholders of the sugar industry on its status and challenges.

Guyana yesterday signed a €23.355M ($6.3B) financing agreement for funding from the European Union (EU) to support the sugar industry and head of the EU Delegation Ambassador Robert Kopecky said one of the crucial requirements to ensure the full payout is the conversion of land for mechanisation.

In an attempt to decongest Lamaha Street from Vlissengen Road to Main Street, the Public Works Ministry has struck a deal with local businesses to utilise the Lamaha Railway Embankment for temporary parking lots.

With less than a week of harvesting left the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) has no chance of getting near to its 77,000-tonne first crop target and is headed for a record low.

Two families are in mourning as they await the post-mortem examination results for Vijay ‘Kevin’ Arjune, 24, and Parbattie ‘Priya’ Mangroo, 19, who were found dead in a suspected murder/suicide late Thursday night.

President of the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Clinton Urling says that the University of Guyana was poorly equipped to produce graduates with the necessary abilities to satisfy the current needs of the private sector.

The National Communications Network (NCN) had dismissed the up-linking of the Guyana Learning Channel (GLC) as “not a viable project, both technically and financially,” GLC Head Dr Seeta Shah-Roath said and therefore it was not put out for public tender.

Essequibo rice farmers yesterday vowed to continue protests over prices from mills even as the GRDB promised mechanisms following several meetings where bags of paddy were opened up to show the growers infestation and poor quality.

Linden nurses yesterday protested outside the National Assembly for their gratuity payments from the Ministry of Health and accused their union of abandoning them, something the GPSU later denied.

The Maritime Administration Department (MARAD) has yet to complete its final report on the Mazaruni boat collision that resulted in 10 deaths in late January.