Registering its concern over the proposed sale of GuySuCo’s land at Diamond, the Alliance for Change (AFC) said on Friday that the long-term viability of the corporation would be compromised if the land was put on the market.
The party said government has failed to articulate a vision of what form of production would be conducted after the land was sold and it accused the ruling party of sacrificing the continuing viability of the industry for short-term cash flow. In a statement issued on the proposed sale of the land the AFC asked, “Who would buy the land? In what form of production activity would the buyers engage in order to employ our people?” The party also expressed concern that government is yet to establish a transparent framework for the sale of the land.
According to the party, the Diamond land could be used to revitalize sugar cane fields to feed an ethanol plant on the East Bank, “preferably at Diamond that can tie in with the current DDL operations there to form an industrial cluster”. However, the AFC said such a plan must be part of a national renewable energy industrial policy.
GuySuCo is expecting to rake in close to $30 billion by disposing of land at Diamond; the sale of the land is identified in a turnaround plan for the industry in which the disposal of land is to be pursued by the corporation as a cash inflow initiative.
In its plan, the party said, it supports an immediate E10 agenda going through Parliament to mix with the gasoline imported here with 10% ethanol, which is made right in Guyana. It noted that with the reactivation of sugar cane fields in Demerara the industry would also be able to have a new bagasse co-generation plant in the Diamond industrial cluster, benefiting both GuySuCo and local industries in the area.
The AFC said also that a national E10 policy – which must be increased later to higher blends of ethanol – would also empower GuySuCo to repeat a similar renewable energy industrial cluster in West Demerara and West Berbice.
“…We also believe that an E10 policy must also be complemented with a national B10 policy to mix bio-fuel (made from coconuts) with imported diesel. Coconut waste (husk and shells) also provides feedstock for co-generation to back up our bagasse co-generation. Coconuts are also versatile enough to provide for many other agro-industrial applications like bottled coconut water by Banks DIH and DDL,” the party continued.
Further, the party said it believes national renewable energy E10 and B10 policies would benefit the country in various ways including saving foreign exchange by importing less gasoline and diesel; producing carbon-neutral energy from ethanol and co-generation and creating jobs and saving GuySuCo’s operations among other things.
