“We’ve been unable to move beyond expressions of interest”-President says of agri- investment in Guyana

Georgetown, GINA, April 15, 2008

Responding to questions by the media today during a press conference at his office, Head of State Bharrat Jagdeo said that Guyana has been unable to move from simply expressions of interest by Caribbean agriculture investors as it relates to Guyana’s land use for expanding agricultural ventures and to aid in providing more food for Caribbean Community (CARICOM) countries.
            The President had earlier alluded to the food crisis worldwide and the fact that Guyana is fortunate to possess  the resources and capacity for agriculture expansion and food production.   
            “Increasing agriculture is quite important to Guyana. We have had quite a few proposals now and they are being examined. You would recall that the intermediate savannahs were given out to people for large scale holdings but many of them didn’t do anything with the lands so we’re in the process of recovering those lands…to make them available to other people,” the Head of State told the media.
            He pointed to the major Agriculture investment forum to be held in Guyana in June which he said will not be just another conference to issue another declaration at the end, but to bring together those who wish to invest in agriculture together with bankers as well as government officials in order to create opportunities for specific projects. He reiterated that the forum’s objective is to see how much business could be done in agriculture.  
            “That’s the only way we’ll move forward. We have heard Trinidad has expressed interest but unfortunately we have been unable to move beyond expressions of interest. When we try to pin down specific projects, we have not had much success,” President Jagdeo said.
In light of food prices spiralling globally, the President noted that this is going to be a growing problem.
“There will be two factors: some countries will not have food because they can’t find supplies to import and some countries will have difficulty finding the food even when they have the money and all the countries will face rising prices.”
The Head of State noted that by now most people know the reasons for the rising prices – the drought affecting some countries, the increased demand in the growing, emerging economies of the world, the rising cost of oil and the switch in crops to facilitate alternative energy.
A number of measures were undertaken by the Government to cushion the effects. The administration has also been encouraging persons to make use of land and grow more food locally in order to lessen imports of certain food items.
            President Jagdeo noted that Guyana also imports much fuel, the price of which has also been skyrocketing and is also one of the factors contributing to rising food prices.
            On this note, he pointed to Government’s efforts currently to source generating sets which do not use diesel. Diesel was said to be more expensive than other fuel and contributed to the large overhead expense of the Guyana Power and Light (GPL) since the entity possessed some generators that used diesel.
            Government recently, removed the Excise Tax from diesel as a means of cushioning the effects of its high cost. This, he said, cost the administration some $3B.
            “We have also removed all the taxes from diesel because diesel feeds into production and that adds to the prices, so we have removed taxes. We are going to give up $3B this year because that’s how much we have programmed to come in, $3B from just zero-rating diesel, just to cushion prices of climbing oil prices. Gasoline only has a 10 percent tax. We have zero taxes on kerosene and cooking gas.”
            The Head of State reminded the media of Government’s plans to also assist single parent households through a $100M allocation. He explained that the administration is currently examining ways in which the money could be dispensed. Small projects to assist the families are one of the options being considered.
            The President noted that, “We are blessed here in this country because we have land, water resources and we can grow food unlike so many other countries and we have decided a lot of seed materials, planting materials for the Amerindian communities,” He also spoke of assistance to deal with acoushi ants which affect their crops.
            Already, citizens in a number of countries have been protesting the rising prices of foods items, including those in India, Haiti and Trinidad and Tobago.
            The President said as a result of the rising prices, it has been estimated that over 100 million persons have slipped from the middle class to the ranking of the poor.
            With a number of CARICOM countries already affected by the crisis, CARICOM has been looking at Guyana as the place to start the expansion of food production and promotion of food security in the region with its abundant land and agriculture experience.  

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