Corriverton businessman hopes for brighter 2010

Jan 11, 2010 News

CORRIVERTON, BERBICE – Former President and founder member of the Upper Corentyne Chamber of Commerce, David Subnauth, is hopeful that 2010 would be a more productive and transparent year for Guyanese.

“The Kaieteur News paper did well in terms of highlighting the areas of mismanagement and over-spending by Government officials. It is disturbing to know that people are receiving over $1million a month for salary when the ordinary worker is receiving next to nothing for a salary.”

Subnauth reiterated his calls for regularised backtrack operations in the Number Seventy-eight area, which he said, continues to flourish.

This he said strengthens the need for the Government to make a decision this year.

According to him, goods imported via the illegal ports of entry are less than 50 percent but serve almost every region in Guyana.

He added that using the official port of entry/exit – Moleson Creek Ferry Terminal is time consuming and does not cater for one day business transactions due to the schedule.

“But with the backtrack operations, a person can be in neighbouring Suriname within 20 minutes. You can do your shopping and can come back within half day.”

A number of persons perished in the Corentyne River en route to Suriname using the very backtrack facilities. “It’s a lot of risk…too risky yes and not safe, it’s illegal but it is faster.”

The Former President said what is needed is for the vessels plying the route to have adequate safety measures in place and adhere to all rules of navigation.

The businessman is hoping for some improvement at the Skeldon Sugar Modernisation Project, better paddy prices, more secure conditions for fishermen and fewer reports of cattle rustling.

In his assessment, the agriculture sector in Region Six performed well with satisfactory overall yields, especially for sugar cane.

However, private sugar cane farmers were not without woes. According to him, a larger amount of sugar cane was taken by the Skeldon Sugar factory but fewer tons of sugar was produced.

He explained that the standard production figure is 40 tons per acre of land and farmers in Region Six got in excess of 60 tons per acre for the 2009 autumn sugar cane crop. The factory is expected to process this amount and produce one ton of sugar from every ten tons of sugar cane supplied.

“The poor performance of the SSMP is causing the farmers to lose in this way. This caused the farmers tremendous loss. The farmers did well, they got in excess of 60 tons per acre but the factory destroyed the farmer by taking 20 tons of cane to make one ton of sugar, one ton.”

He said for the private sugar cane farmers who are indebted to financial institutions, the returns expected would have been used to offset their loan balances.

But the figures were less and these farmers are now unable to repay the stipulated installments to the banks. This he said would result in bad track records for the borrowers.

He noted that rice did exceedingly well but farmers are still plagued by poor prices for paddy. The businessman said the El Niño conditions are causing farmers to invest more on land preparation and cultivation for this present spring rice crop.

Cash crops too were affected by the prevailing dry weather and many small farmers were forced to spend more money on water pumps to irrigate farmlands.

The founder member of the Upper Corentyne Chamber of Commerce is satisfied with the volume of seafood brought to shore and commended fishermen. His concern here is for their safety as they ply their trade on water.

“The threat is still there though it is happening less often, it is now more violent. In the past, the pirates stole only boats, engines, the catch and other things but now lives are lost in the process. There is always room for the security forces to do better in terms of making the rivers and land safer for our fisher folk and all Guyanese as well.”

Cattle rustling is a major concern on the Upper Corentyne and Mr. Subnauth said what is frustrating is that little seems to be done to assist the victims.

“There is not much the cattle farmers can do. People come in on horseback and steal their cows. On the whole, the farmers can do very little about this. Swifter police action is needed and this can deter the thieves.”

He noted that a lot more can be done by the Guyana Police Force and Guyana Defence Force to improve the image and quality of service, given the amount of money Government invests on each.

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Corriverton businessman hopes for brighter 2010

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