President Dr. Irfaan Ali on Saturday said the People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPP/C) government managed to create 60,000 jobs from 2020, reversing the employment woes faced from 2015 to 2020.
Dr. Ali spoke at the opening ceremony of the party’s 32nd Congress. About 3,000 delegates gathered at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre at Liliendaal, Georgetown for the congress this weekend.
The President said Guyana was gripped by enormous hardships from 2015 to 2020 when the country was governed by the APNU + AFC coalition.
According to him, more than 50,000 people lost their jobs under the former administration. Those who lost their jobs, he said, included thousands of sugar workers, and as such, about 7,000 families, dependent on the sugar industry, were sent to the “breadline.”
The President said the PPP vowed to remedy the situation once reelected, and he believes it has been doing so since 2020.
“In just more than three years, your party, this PPP/ government, has brought back 60,000 new jobs to the people of this country.
“We have reopened the sugar estates, we have brought back more than 7000 sugar workers… and by the end of this year, we will double the number of workers in the bauxite industry,” Dr. Ali said.
Not only in the sugar or agricultural sectors but the President also believes that the country, generally, is performing much better now. He said the PPP brought back “hope, aspirations, vision and ideas” to Guyanese.
The management of the sugar industry is serious business locally. The former APNU+AFC government opted to shut down four sugar estates and send home thousands of sugar workers as part of efforts to “right size” the industry.
The PPP, contrastingly, believes that efforts to sustain and revitalise the industry are important since sugar is a major crop for Guyana, and the industry employs thousands of people, thereby serving people’s needs too.
At the opening of the congress, President of the Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union (GAWU) Seepaul Narine said the union remains committed to working alongside the government to develop the sector and the lives of workers.
“Our union is ready to collaborate with the government in enhancing labour rights, ensuring fair wages, promoting sustainable agriculture, and fostering economic growth among other things.
“We believe that the key to building a more equitable and prosperous Guyana lies in working together to uplift the marginalised, empower the disadvantaged, and create a society where every citizen can thrive and prosper,” Narine said.
