“We’ve been unable to move beyond expressions of interest”-President says of agri- investment in Guyana
Georgetown, GINA, April 15, 2008
Responding to questions by the media today during a press conference at his office, Head of State Bharrat Jagdeo said that Guyana has been unable to move from simply expressions of interest by Caribbean agriculture investors as it relates to Guyana’s land use for expanding agricultural ventures and to aid in providing more food for Caribbean Community (CARICOM) countries.
The President had earlier alluded to the food crisis worldwide and the fact that Guyana is fortunate to possess the resources and capacity for agriculture expansion and food production.
“Increasing agriculture is quite important to Guyana. We have had quite a few proposals now and they are being examined. You would recall that the intermediate savannahs were given out to people for large scale holdings but many of them didn’t do anything with the lands so we’re in the process of recovering those lands…to make them available to other people,” the Head of State told the media.
He pointed to the major Agriculture investment forum to be held in Guyana in June which he said will not be just another conference to issue another declaration at the end, but to bring together those who wish to invest in agriculture together with bankers as well as government officials in order to create opportunities for specific projects. He reiterated that the forum’s objective is to see how much business could be done in agriculture.
“That’s the only way we’ll move forward. We have heard Trinidad has expressed interest but unfortunately we have been unable to move beyond expressions of interest. When we try to pin down specific projects, we have not had much success,” President Jagdeo said.
In light of food prices spiralling globally, the President noted that thisis going to be a growing problem.
“There will be two factors: some countries will not have food because they can’t find supplies to import and some countries will have difficulty finding the food even when they have the money and all the countries will face rising prices.”
The Head of State noted that by now most people know the reasons for the rising prices – the drought affecting some countries, the increased demand in the growing, emerging economies of the world, the rising cost of oil and the switch in crops to facilitate alternative energy.
A number of measures were undertaken by the Government to cushion the effects. The administration has also been encouraging persons to make use of land and grow more food locally in order to lessen imports of certain food items.
President Jagdeo noted that Guyana also imports much fuel, the price of which has also been skyrocketing and is also one of the factors contributing to rising food prices.
On this note, he pointed to Government’s efforts currently to source generating sets which do not use diesel. Diesel was said to be more expensive than other fuel and contributed to the large overhead expense of the Guyana Power and Light (GPL) since the entity possessed some generators that used diesel.
Government recently, removed the Excise Tax from diesel as a means of cushioning the effects of its high cost. This, he said, cost the administration some $3B.
“We have also removed all the taxes from diesel because diesel feeds into production and that adds to the prices, so we have removed taxes. We are going to give up $3B this year because that’s how much we have programmed to come in, $3B from just zero-rating diesel, just to cushion prices of climbing oil prices. Gasoline only has a 10 percent tax. We have zero taxes on kerosene and cooking gas.”
The Head of State reminded the media of Government’s plans to also assist single parent households through a $100M allocation. He explained that the administration is currently examining ways in which the money could be dispensed. Small projects to assist the families are one of the options being considered.
The President noted that, “We are blessed here in this country because we have land, water resources and we can grow food unlike so many other countries and we have decided a lot of seed materials, planting materials for the Amerindian communities,” He also spoke of assistance to deal with acoushi ants which affect their crops.
Already, citizens in a number of countries have been protesting the rising prices of foods items, including those in India, Haiti and Trinidad and Tobago.
The President said as a result of the rising prices, it has been estimated that over 100 million persons have slipped from the middle class to the ranking of the poor.
With a number of CARICOM countries already affected by the crisis, CARICOM has been looking at Guyana as the place to start the expansion of food production and promotion of food security in the region with its abundant land and agriculture experience.
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Sharma’s Licence suspended due to repeated rebroadcasts
-station owner had Court Order served on HPS who was to hear matter
Georgetown, GINA, April 15, 2008
Head of State Bharrat Jagdeo, addressing the media today said that Chandra Narine Sharma’s (CNS’s) television licence was suspended for four months by him in his capacity as Minister of Information because the material which rendered the station’s owner in violation of his licence was repeatedly rebroadcast. He added that the station’s owner could not give any adequate explanation during a hearing as to why he did not have the offensive comments edited.
He explained that following the rebroadcast of the Voice of the People programme, he received letters from the Advisory Committee on Broadcasting (ACB) citing the infringements by Sharma.
“I received from the ACB two letters, the letter of March 10th to the licencee citing infringements owing to the rebroadcast of the offending material and the licencee’s response which was sent on March 28. We found here that the response was not adequate, and as such, in exercise of the power vested in me as Minister in the particular area, I asked the Head of the Presidential Secretariat to convene a meeting with the licencee so that he’d be given an opportunity to further explain the breaches and the infringement on the licence,” the President said.
The President said that the process which followed would provide a clear picture as to what actually occurred, since immediately following, Sharma proceeded to the court in an effort to prevent the HPS from carrying out the hearing.
“So, much of the talk that I hear today that I should not have heard the case because the offending material relates to me, they did not take into account that I sought to delegate the powers that are vested in me as the Minister to another person but CN Sharma to himself through the laws went to court and sought to prevent the delegation,” the President explained.
He added that not only did Sharma have a Court Order served on the HPS to prevent him from hearing the matter, but he went further to later have another Court Order served to show cause why his (the President’s) decision to delegate the powers vested in him thereunder to Dr. Luncheon should not be quashed as a decision which is ultra vires, null, void and made in excess of his (the President’s power).
“So, not just an Order seeking an Order against Dr. Luncheon but an order against me, prohibiting me from delegating my powers as Minister under the Act (the Guyana Post and Telegraph Act Chapter 47(01),” President Jagdeo stated.
He reiterated that C.N. Sharma through his lawyers went to the Court and was successful in blocking him from delegating his powers to Dr. Luncheon for the purpose of the hearing.
“I had no recourse because if I could not as Minister hear the matter myself and could not delegate it to anyone, then remedy could not have taken place, that’s not the intention of the law, so people have to understand clearly this was not my first choice to hear the matter,” President Jagdeo said.
The Head of State pointed out that since he had no other avenue, he convened the hearing, but was not alone since the Director of Telecommunications, Head of the Presidential Secretariat and the Attorney General were also present.
“Again we posed the question…. and there was an acknowledgement by everyone concerned that there was an infringement of the licence, so the question was posed repeatedly by the Attorney General especially, why, if Sharma recognized that it was an infringement and he chastised the caller, he did not take steps to edit out the offending material in the subsequent rebroadcast,” he further explained.
The President related that Sharma’s team then argued that it was a mistake of someone and pointed to one of the technical staff.
“But everyone knows that these are scheduled rebroadcasts so he could not argue that this was the case. In fact, when I posed the question that who bears the ultimate responsibility, there was an acknowledgment that it is the licensee and not …pass the blame unto some junior staff,” President Jagdeo stated.
President Jagdeo told media operatives that on the night of the announcement of the suspension, Sharma had a live programme and the panel included whom he described as ‘every person who had a grievance against the government’.
He said he personally viewed the programme and witnessed the drama that unfolded.
“Drama is fine but dishonesty is not but it just wasn’t the political operatives who were dishonest, there were members of the media there,” President Jagdeo said emphasising that not once was it mentioned on the programme that Sharma’s license was suspended due to repeated infringements as a result of repeated rebroadcasts of the offending material and not for the initial infringement when the actual call took place.
President Jagdeo said Sharma himself speaks about how many years he has been in operation and noted that in all those years he has always been critical of the government and Government was always tolerant of this.
“In fact, some people say we are too tolerant and that is why we have this abuse of the air waves,” the Head of State contended.
“Can you imagine in another country it would be inconceivable for this to even take place in another jurisdiction? There was a movie even just hinting that a particular President could be assassinated. It was such a big public outcry and the mainstream media and with the Opposition in that country that they had to remove the offensive section,” President Jagdeo said
He noted that in Guyana, the Opposition has seen another reason for joining a bandwagon.
“How could you justify urging people to commit a crime or broadcasting it using public air waves and repeatedly re-broadcasting that with an acknowledgment by everyone?” President Jagdeo queried.
The President recalled that the ACB was set up following the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between himself and late Leader of the People’s National Congress Reform (PNC/R) Mr. Hugh Desmond Hoyte.
He emphasised that the body is set up as an advisory body but nowhere in the legislation does it say that the Minister should act only with the advice of the ACB.
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