With efforts to revitalise the co-operative society movement in Guyana, the Ministry of Social Protection’s Labour Department will be establishing four new co-operative movements in the coastland areas in 2018.
According to the Department of Public Information (DPI), the US$12 million funded project aims to create a minimum of 160 jobs for persons in the Mocha, Buxton, Beterverwagting and Ithaca areas.
According to Chief Co-operatives Development Officer, Perlina Gifth, the movement will take the form of a worker-type society to benefit the employees.
“You can be a member of the society and be an employer of the society…We are working towards creating employment for the unemployed. A person can be employed in a co-op society and have the same benefits as outlined in the labour laws of Guyana,” Gifth said.
According to Gifth, the new approach (worker-type) will be introduced to other co-operative societies, since it is geared to attract more persons to the movement. According to DPI, she said the four new co-op societies will function as the pilot groups for a Rural Agriculture Infrastructure Development Programme, managed under the Ministry of Agriculture.
“These four groups are expected to have funding of over US$12 million dollars. The funding will provide all the equipment and whatever seedlings that they will require because it is agriculture-based,” Gifth explained.
