Pushpa Balgobin

 As the Guyana Mangrove Restoration Project (GMRP) concludes its final year of official funding from the European Union, the acreage replanted is only around half of what was projected for the three-year $1 billion scheme intended to shore up sea defences and boost afforestation.

By Marcelle Thomas   As their Air Services Limited plane took to the skies from the Ogle International Airport on Monday, Sheldon Williams and his wife Urmilla Rajesh laughed when the pilot asked another passenger at which airstrip she was supposed to land.

With sections of the private sector being caught flat-footed by the new 40-hour work week and the $35,000 minimum wage, the employers’  body, CAGI has been blamed for not adequately disseminating information, a charge its head has dismissed.

Shadow Minister of Agriculture Dr Rupert Roopnaraine says it is amazing that GuySuCo has not done a nutrient analysis of its sugar fields given all of the concerns expressed about recent yields and he believes recent remarks by the Head of State signal that government has no comprehensive plan for sugar.

In his starkest warning to date, President Donald Ramotar yesterday said that the sugar industry is at a crisis point and in desperate need of resuscitation but he offered no concrete proposals while inviting ideas from stakeholders.

GAWU Head, Komal Chand says that GuySuCo is not addressing one of its major problems –the quality of canes in the ground – even as the corporation now faces the task of producing at least 143,000 tonnes of sugar in its second crop to meet its key EU quota and the local market.

The Public Works Ministry is constructing two new groynes and rehabilitating an additional two groynes along the seawall stretching from Kingston to Camp Road.

Minister of Agriculture, Dr Leslie Ramsammy, yesterday said that while information is still being gathered, the first round of payments to rice farmers, from a $2.5 billion government advance began on Wednesday of last week.

After a heated debate followed by a vote, the opposition succeeded in sending the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (Amendment) Bill to a Special Select Committee on Tuesday prior to Parliament adjourning.