PRIVATISATION OF SUGAR INDUSTRY PART OF REDEFINING ROLE OF GOVERNMENT

PRIVATISATION OF SUGAR INDUSTRY PART OF
REDEFINING ROLE OF GOVERNMENT

Prime Minister Bruce Golding, addressing a Town Hall meeting in Clarendon said the effort to privatize the sugar industry will be part of redefining the role played by government in serving the needs of the people.

"Government cannot fix roads, maintain hospitals, manage schools, look after poor people in infirmaries and still be in the business of producing sugar. It doesn't make any sense...every pound of sugar, every tonne of cane that we produce under government ownership, cost taxpayers money. If it costs us a hundred dollars to produce it, we have to sell it for eighty or seventy-five dollars. We cannot continue that way" Mr. Golding explained.

He mentioned that the sugar companies in St. Thomas and Trelawny have been privatized and so will those in St. Catherine, Clarendon, St. Elizabeth, and Westmoreland. He also said that negotiations are being carried out with a European company which has a sound track record and he hopes that the talks will be completed in a short time.

"We expect that some of the sugar workers are going to be re-employed once we have concluded those negotiations and the new owners have come. But they are not going to employ everybody; they are not going to employ three people if two can do the work" Mr. Golding added.

In addition, Mr. Golding said "...it will provide strong support for the farmers. The price of sugar is good now and we don't know how long that will be but there's an opportunity where we can really get that industry going."