Dear Editor,
I read articles which were published in the press recently, one was in the Stabroek News on December 10, 2025 and titled ‘GAICO, US Company in sugar refinery deal – aiming at 100,000 tonnes per annum’ and the other was in the Kaieteur News on December 11, 2025 and titled ‘Deal sealed for US$20M white sugar refinery at Wales’. One of the articles stated, ‘Guyana’s first-ever white sugar refinery, a US$20 million joint venture between GAICO Construction and General Services Inc. and US-based Sucro Limited is set to position the country as a major supplier of refined sugar to the CARICOM market’.
I applaud the current government for continuing and concluding this negotiation that was started by the GuySuCo management under the APNU+AFC government. This is what governments should do; continue the viable policies, strategies, plans, programmes, projects, and ideas from previous governments. It is great to see that some sections of the private sector are now keen to be involved in the production of white sugar because one of the pushbacks against the production of white sugar locally was that sections of the private sector were importing white sugar and were more interested in their bottom line over supporting the viability of GuySuCo. However, if President Irfaan Ali’s government continues along their partisan development path, they will implicate international companies by committing constitutional violations along with the government. Article 13 of the Guyana Constitution states that ‘The principal objective of the political system of the State is to establish an inclusionary democracy by providing increasing opportunities for the participation of citizens, and their organisations in the management and decision-making processes of the State, with particular emphasis on those areas of decision-making that directly affect their well-being’.
The PPP/C government could have continued most of the plans and projects which were developed by the previous GuySuCo management under the APNU-AFC government because they were extremely viable. The management developed a draft ‘New Sustainable Business Model’ and a draft ‘New Strategic Plan’. A component of the ‘New Sustainable Business Model’ was to produce white sugar and these discussions commenced with a Belize sugar company. The then management had also developed the ‘Sustainable and Resilient Communities Programme’ (S&RCP), as shock-counteraction and shock-absorption measures for the reorganizing process as a part of the new business model. These were excellent approaches, proposals to ensure the viability of GuySuCo as a business. A business department of a university in the USA had even begun to show an interest in the ‘Sustainable and Resilient Communities Programme (S&RCP)’, which could have been a model for companies experiencing market challenges and are required to reorganize or reengineer.
Could you imagine what a viable company and business, GuySuCo, would have been in 2025, if the government had continued many of the policies, strategies, plans, programmes and projects from the management under APNU+AFC government? The question now is where will the raw sugar to supply to the Demerara Sugar Refinery (DSR) come from to produce the white sugar? When these negotiations were ongoing under the APNU+AFC government about the production of white sugar, GuySuCo produced 104,641 tonnes in 2018, 90,246 tonnes in 2019 and 89,000 tonnes in 2020 and had a target of 143,000 – 150,000 tonnes of sugar for 2021/2022. In 2021, GuySuCo produced 58,995 tonnes, 58,025 tonnes in 2022, 60,204 tonnes in 2023, 47,130 in 2024 and now 15,000 tonnes for the first crop of 2025. So, where will the raw sugar come from for the refinery? How will this refinery be funded? GuySuCo’s management under the APNU+AFC government earned over US$200M more and produced two to three times more sugar with only three estates and less financial input from 2016 to 2020 than what the current management has produced from 2021 to 2025 even with more financial input and resources.
The government must stop doing this to its citizens. From 2020, the government fired excellent managers and employees because of their political affiliation or perceived political affiliation, they were Afro-Guyanese or because they just did not like them and many of these people are suffering, I mean really suffering. Many of them are qualified and experienced and cannot get decent work whether in the public sector, private sector of international public sector, in many cases, because of the government, while those who support the government whether they are competent or not are benefiting enormously, economically. This is a violation of Article 21 of the Guyana Constitution which states ‘The source of the growth of social wealth and of the well-being of the people, and of each individual, is the labour of the people’. Article 22 (1) states that ‘Every citizen has the right to be rewarded according to the nature, quality and quantity of his or her work, to equal pay for equal work or work of equal value, and to just conditions of work’ and Article 22 (2) states that ‘Every citizen who is able to work has a duty to work’.
At some point citizens of Guyana will ask themselves how many homes and possessions must they lose because their government is not allowing them to get meaningful work/jobs in their own country; how many family members must they lose because they do not have enough money for proper medical care; How much longer must they stay silent while they are called incompetent, not good enough, obstructionist and hindrances to growth and development, among other things, by their own government, when the evidence is different? Now that Guyana is becoming a major international player as an oil and gas producing country, the government must adhere to the constitution, local and international labour and employment laws and govern based on the ‘rule of law’ and not ‘rule by law’. I appeal to international organisations and the diplomatic community in Guyana to ensure that companies from their countries develop, apply and demand inclusive labour and employment policies, practices and approaches which are in accordance with Article 13, Article 21 and Article 22 (1) and 22 (2) of the Guyana Constitution.