Modern Skeldon sugar factory…
Nears Completion
- Various features currently being tested
GOVERNMENT’S vision for a modernised and developed sugar industry led by the flagship factory, which is nearing completion at Skeldon, Corentyne, Berbice is closer to becoming a reality as emphasis is currently being placed on preparing for the eventual operation of the factory.
At present, various components of the factory's operation are being tested individually as part of efforts to ensure that the systems and facilities put in place can function as intended.
The testing exercise started last month and based on progress reports, the activity has so far indicated great success.
This was emphasised by Minister of Agriculture Robert Persaud during a visit to the factory on Saturday last where he witnessed several areas of operations being tested.
He was accompanied by a team of officials from agencies such as the Guyana Sugar Corporation (Guysuco), the Region Six Administration, the Ministry of Agriculture and the construction company - China National Technology Import and Export Corporation (CNTIC).
It is anticipated that the current testing exercise will be completed by April paving the way for the factory's entire operation to be tested to ensure that it has the required sugar producing capacity.
Minister Persaud said, "Once these tests are completed, I think it will allow the engineer and the technical staff to look at the situation and then plan in terms of commissioning the entire factory and having it in use."
It was noted that although the factory is behind schedule, due to several issues which were anticipated earlier, it is expected that the testing exercise will continue to be positive and will allow for the factory to commence operation in time for the second crop so that there would not be much output loss.
Initial operations will commence with a targeted capacity of 25,000 tonnes of cane per day while it is expected that this amount will be expanded to 300,000 tonnes per day in 2009 and eventually the factory will reach its 350,000 tonnes per day benchmark in 2010.
Another area being given priority as part of the preparations to commission the factory is ensuring that the human resource elements are in place with both local expertise and external assistance, particularly as it relates to the facility's management.
It was pointed out that different options are being considered to ensure that management of the factory is done in a manner that is in accordance with the multi-million dollar investment made in the project.
"What we have here doesn't exist in the Caribbean, and it doesn't exist in many parts of the world, this is relatively new technology, hence, we have to make great efforts to ensure that the quality of management is high and the quality of technical staff is not compromised," Minister Persaud stated.
More than 30 Guyanese are currently undergoing technical training and gaining hands-on knowledge through the testing exercise. Several of these persons recently returned from overseas where they were being trained and exposed to operations at a similar company.
The factory is one of the key elements of the Skeldon Sugar Modernisation Project (SSMP) which represents an investment of close to US$200M being made by Government to revitalise the sugar industry in Guyana.
Other components include construction of the co-generation plant and agricultural development that includes cultivation of additional lands to ensure adequate supply of cane to the new factory which will have a capacity to crush approximately 1.2 million tonnes per year, producing more than 100,000 tonnes of sugar annually.
The contract for the construction of the sugar factory and cogeneration plant was signed between Guysuco and CNTIC in June 2004. (GINA)
Global factors to blame for hike in food prices, not VAT
GUYANESE from all walks of life, after a visit to the market, are certain of one thing – the cost for food has risen sharply.
This stark reality which is part of an unfolding global crisis is still not entirely understood and, as is often the case, the usual suspect; the Value-Added Tax (VAT), is blamed for the increase in prices.
It may therefore come as a surprise to know that VAT is not the primary cause for the rise in food prices. In fact, this situation is a direct result of several factors which are beyond the control of Guyana, and our neighbours in CARICOM.
The United States (U.S.), in an effort to reduce its oil insecurity by converting grain into fuel (ethanol) for cars, is generating global food insecurity on a scale never before seen.
As a result, prices of food products made directly from commodities such as grain, soybean and wheat; bread and pasta, and those made indirectly, such as pork, poultry, beef, milk, and eggs, are on the rise.
In Mexico, corn meal prices are up 60 percent. In Pakistan, flour prices have doubled. China is facing rampant food price inflation, some of the worst in decades.
By late 2007, the price of a loaf of whole wheat bread in the U.S. was 12 percent higher than a year earlier, milk was up 29 percent, and eggs were up 36 percent. In Italy, pasta prices were up 20 percent.
In Guyana, despite government’s move to place several additional items on the VAT zero-rated list, including flour, the National Milling Company (NAMILCO) has increased the cost of its flour by 16 percent, and a leading bakery has already increased the price for bread and tennis-rolls by at least 20 percent. While the cost for wheat has risen on the world market, the prevalence of unprincipled business practices is a reminder that the reduction or removal of VAT will not necessarily result in a decrease in prices.
The Trinidad Newsday recently reported that supermarkets on the island informed that Par Excellence parboiled rice will now cost 10 percent more. Grocers also revealed that Unilever Caribbean Limited issued notices that the prices of Blue Band, Golden Ray and Cookeen margarines had increased. Tuna prices also increased last week in the twin island republic, and many shops increased the price of chicken also.
In Haiti, the most severely hit country in the region; the poor have resorted to eating biscuits made of mud. The mud is first strained and then shaped into biscuits which are left in the sun. For Haitians unable to afford even a plate of rice, the mud biscuits have become their staple diet.
Over the last seven years world grain production has fallen short of consumption. These annual shortfalls have been covered by drawing down grain stocks, but the carryover stocks -- the amount in the bin when the new harvest begins -- have now dropped to 54 days of world consumption, the lowest on record.
The World Bank reports that for each 1 percent rise in food prices, caloric intake among the poor drops 0.5 percent. Millions of those living on the lower rungs of the global economic ladder, people who are barely hanging on, will lose their grip and begin to fall off.
Projections by Professors C. Ford Runge and Benjamin Senauer of the University of Minnesota four years ago showed the number of hungry and malnourished people decreasing to 625 million by 2025. But in early 2007 their update of these projections, taking into account the biofuel effect on world food prices, showed the number of hungry people climbing to 1.2 billion by 2025.
As grain prices climb, food scarcity is emerging as exporting countries restrict exports to limit the rise in domestic food prices. At the end of January, Russia -- one of the top five wheat exporters -- imposed a 40-percent export tax on wheat, effectively banning exports. Argentina, another leading wheat exporter, closed export registrations for wheat indefinitely in last December until it could assess the condition of the new crop. And Viet Nam, the number two rice exporter after Thailand, has banned rice exports for several months and will likely not lift this ban until the new crop comes to market.
In response to this unfolding crisis, CARICOM’s trade body – the Council for Trade and Economic Development (COTED), recently approved the suspension of the Common External Tariff on 40 items including, baby formula, cheddar cheese, juices used by infants, tampons, milk, chicken, beef and potatoes. This tariff is imposed on goods coming into CARICOM from outside its borders, and its suspension will result in a reduction in price for the effected goods.
While projections continue to be grim on this global situation, Guyana’s ability to produce more food than the nation consumes will augur well in the drive to ensure that the effects of bio-fuel production coupled with natural disasters does not have a continued and prolonged adverse effect on Guyanese (A Guyana Marketing Corporation feature).
COHSOD meeting opens today with…
Spotlight on Children
A 12th Special Council of Human and Social Development (COHSOD) convenes today at the Guyana International Conference Centre, Turkeyen, under the theme ‘Building a Region Fit for Children’, and against the background of mounting concerns about the plight and prospects of the Region’s children.
It is the second time that COHSOD will focus on children and the 17:00 hrs opening ceremony will have as its keynote speaker Professor Nigel Harris, Vice Chancellor of the University of the West Indies (UWI), according to a CARICOM Secretariat release.
Slated to speak as well are Secretary-General, Caribbean Community (CARICOM), Edwin Carrington; Minister of Human Development and Social Transformation, Belize, Peter Martinez; Minister of Home Affairs, Guyana, Clement Rohee; and Regional Director, UNICEF (Latin America and the Caribbean).
Under the chairmanship of Belize, the forum, will consider a programme for children overall but particularly those in shelters, schools and communities and those affected by emergencies occasioned by natural disasters and the increasing effects of climate change, crime and violence, poverty and the resurgence of diseases such as malaria, dengue, leptospirosis and emerging threats like bird flu.
The COHSOD will specifically review strategies to deal with vulnerable children; prevention of child abuse; sexual exploitation and family separation; and discuss the potential impacts of displacement factors such as enforced migration on children.
It will also make the case for a Comprehensive Child Legislative Framework and efficient implementing mechanisms for greater protection of children.
The key issues include the provision of the legal model tools with guidelines/programmes/practices (including prevention strategies) for harmonisation, endorsement, adoption and implementation by the CARICOM Member States.
The three day meeting will attract a wide cross section of participants including Ministers of Government from CARICOM Countries and representatives from regional and international institutions. It is organised around keynote addresses, panel discussions, plenary sessions and special presentations by children.
A major feature of the Meeting will be the opportunity provided for children to present in innovative ways, their views on issues affecting them, using new media and information and communication technologies.
Child journalists under the guidance of young adult reporters, will assist in providing coverage for the first one and a half days of the COHSOD and then report back to the delegates during the afternoon of the second day using the format of a children TV news bulletin which could also be made available to media houses across the CARICOM Member States for broadcasting.
A special feature of the closing ceremony will be a Declaration on Building a Region Fit for Children, the release added.
Education Ministry’s psycho-social consultation moves to Bartica
RESIDENTS of Bartica have responded favourably to the Ministry of Education’s Psychosocial Support Intervention Project (PSIP) which offers counselling for children who are affected by the Lusignan and Bartica massacres and welfare training for teachers and parents assisting in the process.
During a two-day visit to the Region from March 14-15, Minister within the Ministry of Education, Dr. Desrey Fox, and a team visited Bartica, where they conducted interactive consultations with the Regional Officials, Police Officers, teachers and parents of Bartica and other nearby communities in its environs.
The consultation sought to gather information and opinions from teachers, parents and other stakeholders on concerns and reactions experienced by nursery, primary and secondary school children in the aftermath of the massacre and the implementation of the PSIP in that Region.
The psycho-social intervention project started as an initiative by the Ministry of Education in the aftermath of the Lusignan massacre and is funded by the United Nations Children’s Education Fund (UNICEF).
Minister Fox during a meeting at the Bartica Community Centre with teachers and the Parent Teachers’ Association (PTA) said the project aims at getting the involvement of all stakeholders to participate in addressing the effects of behavioural change by the children in the Region.
Representatives from schools in Central Bartica, Riverine areas such as Itaballi, Kartabo, Batavia, Karrau, Agatash, Makouria and other communities indicated that students have been seriously affected by the massacre, since it is reflective in the classrooms with signs of health problems, fear, confused perception of the police, aggressive behaviour and nightmares which are affecting the children’s ability to retain and concentrate on their studies.
However, Minister Fox highlighted to the police that they need to restore trust and confidence in the link with the communities and this might be helpful with the intervention of visits to the school and talks with the children.
“It is the Ministry of Education’s intention to restore normalcy in the lives of the children and people of the communities that are affected and therefore, the Ministry will do all that is possible to ensure the PSIP is effective in dealing with the problems,” Minister Fox said.
Teachers indicated their wiliness to work with the programme and suggested to Minister Fox prominent persons in each community who would be suitable to receive welfare training, to be able to assist the affected children.
Minister Fox said consultations and dialogue were conducted in several communities on the East Coast Demerara.
Lusignan is currently receiving counselling and soon a counselling centre will be set up in Buxton.
She said there are 11 social workers who are working along the Coast and will commence work in Bartica as well when all preparations are made in the communities.
Next week the team will be returning to Bartica to start the project. Teachers will be expected to present a list of affected students who will subsequently receive counselling.
Counselling offices will be set up in each community that has affected children.
The Bartica Hospital has already been identified as a PSIP counselling centre and some parents have also indicated their interest in training as counsellors.
Minister Fox said the Ministry will be happy to offer training and assistance to parents interested and will be using this intervention as a pilot exercise.
She said the Ministry of Education will be working towards offering psycho-social counselling in all the Regions for long-term benefits to deal with all social issues that might be affecting children in the different regions.
