If Skeldon factory doesn’t work sugar is dead – Jagdeo
President Bharrat Jagdeo has warned that if his government’s much-vaunted US$200M Skeldon sugar factory doesn’t succeed …”well the sugar industry is dead”.
It was the starkest warning yet by the Head of State on the Chinese-built factory which has lurched from one crisis to the next and is not working anywhere near to capacity.
Jagdeo was speaking at the commissioning of the Guyana Water Inc. $1.4 billion water treatment plant in Corriverton, Berbice on Thursday. He lamented that the Skeldon Factory was not delivering the expected results and as a result the sugar industry is in trouble.
“This is a US$200 million facility… unfortunately, it’s not delivering the results we expected it to,” Jagdeo said. “They have too many mistakes going on there and I intend to fix it…it has to change,” he said. “We’re not going to make that sort of investment to have a few people mess it up,” he stated. “So even if it means personally I have to get involved, I will get involved to ensure that it is fixed…that it’s delivering the kind of results that it should deliver so that we can safeguard the sugar industry,” he stated