While paperwork pertaining to the lands for their machining project at the former Guyana Sugar Corporation [GuySuCo] Enmore packaging plant is yet to be completed, the Guysons joint venture, Guysons K+B Industries, is in the meantime working at the West Ruimveldt location, sources close to the company say.
“Nothing is happening because the paperwork needs to be signed off by the relevant authorities… it’s between NICIL, Lands and Surveys, Ministry of Housing, and Office of the President. When they had to redo the cadastral surveys to cater for the new road infrastructure, it causes a delay. GKB cannot do anything until the paperwork is signed off,” a source close to the project told the Sunday Stabroek.
This newspaper understands that the “investor is active in Guyana but at their other location – the West Ruimveldt Guysons location,” and “the project is still very much alive and the investors are still onboard, with board meetings every week.”
Stabroek News recently visited the Enmore location and observed that infrastructural development work to convert land previously utilised by GuySuCo into the Enmore Industrial Site had commenced.
Minister of Housing and Water, Collin Croal, had issued an update saying that infrastructure work – clearance, internal roads and access bridge – was being carried out in preparation for opening up the land strictly for commercial and industrial purposes. Land is currently being accessed through the corporation’s old housing scheme where a road is being built.
When this newspaper visited, sand filling was underway and trees were being taken down. Several pieces of heavy machinery were at the location.
The industrial complex is expected to house several factories and fabrication facilities.
In December 2021, the government announced plans for the industrial plant which is expected to create close to 1,000 jobs.
With the closure of the Enmore Sugar Estate, the PPP/C-led government on return to power, announced plans to transform the East Coast corridor into an industrial area.
A $7 billion (US$35 million) investment by Guysons and K+B Invest-ments Inc (GK+B) is one of the first projects set to start up in the area.
At the 2022 Inter-national Energy Confer-ence, the companies announced their joint partnership, which President Irfaan Ali said will create tremendous job opportunities for those laid off from the closure of the estate.
“These are highly skilled jobs being created and the company has committed to commence that process almost immediately to have the eventual 500 employees trained and ready to take up jobs in the company,” he said.
“We cannot be narrow-minded. I keep saying to every Guyanese, we have to up our level of thinking, [it] cannot be contained in a box anymore. It is a different era and a different scope that we operate in,” President Ali said then.
In the same breath, he had announced that government will be investing heavily in creating a road network.
A subsidiary of Surinamese-owned Rudisa Inc, Caribbean Inter-national Distributors Inc (CIDI), had also signed a Memorandum of Under-standing with the Guyana Office for Investment (GO-Invest) for the development of a US$35 million agro-processing facility at Enmore.
A joint release from G-Invest and Rudisa, released by the Department of Public Information on the day of the signing, stated that the facility is expected to engage in the production and packaging of various products including milk, natural fruit juices, water, and bread products, such as hamburger rolls, biscuits, cookies, croissants, bagels and donuts, to supply Guyana’s local and export markets.
The release added that the facility will employ approximately 600 people and will be a significant boost to local fruit and dairy farmers, who will be the chief suppliers, while noting Guyana’s capacity for the large-scale production of packaged fruit and dairy products.
