Georgetown : Minister of Natural Resources and the Environment, Robert Persaud today met with representatives of the Guyana Manufacturing and Services Association (GMSA) and the Forest Producers Association (FPA), to look at ways in which the Ministry can lend support to ensure that produce are taken into logging and mining camps.
Since the commencement of the industrial actions by Lindeners, miners, forestry producers and workers within the bauxite industry have been suffering because transportation of fuel and food into mining camps are currently at a standstill.
Alternative mechanisms to ensure that produce enter mining camps in a low cost way, delay in the implementation of the new Export Lobby, the establishment of a hotline number so that forestry and mining operators can make contact and the development of alternative routes if there is a recurrence of the issue, are some of the mechanisms the Ministry is currently implementing.
The team which was lead by President of the Guyana Manufacturing and Services Association, Mohindra Chand, updated the Minister on the present price gouging they are facing to take their produce taken into the backdams.
“We have been getting lot of calls from businesses as they are currently unable to get anything through the road blocks…apart from the price gouging for basic foodstuff, we are forced to have our produce air-dashed and this is costing us a lot,” Chand said.
Currently, operators are forced to pay $75,000 per barrel for fuel and the operators are looking to the Ministry for support and guidance on the way forward.
Chand who pledged on behalf of the forestry industry to give the necessary support to the Ministry, stated that there is currently little fuel supplies left in Kwakwani, Region Ten where a significant amount of logging is being done.
Minister Persaud while acknowledging the situation, committed to ensuring the alternatives are developed so that work can progress, as buyers are cancelling their orders under the basis that Guyana is unreliable.
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