Former Head of the National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited (NICIL), Winston Brassington has defended the decision to bring Russian bauxite company Rusal to Guyana saying it was done to save the local industry and Rusal was the only company to show investment interest at the time.
“If you were in my shoes, a thousand jobs are on the line, a company is making a US$150M investment, who would you choose? What would you tell the people? ‘Guys you know we don’t feel too happy we don’t know these people?’” Brassington questioned as he last week justified bringing Rusal.
“Rusal is a global company, bear in mind they have operations in Jamaica and other places…it is only now that they were sanctioned (by the US)…decisions for the bauxite industry were guided by human interest,” he added.
In an exclusive interview with this newspaper on Thursday, Brassington said that he wanted to tell the story of the bauxite industry during his 20-year stay at NICIL because he feels that a lot of the public criticism comes without background knowledge.
