DIDCO Trading Company has added a new link to its business chain with the launching of a US$16.6 million poultry farm on Saturday at Yarrowkabra on the Linden-Soesdyke Highway.
The poultry farm is fully computerised and automated with temperature regulating gauges and other advanced fittings. It is the first phase of a project, which entails the construction of seven fully computerised buildings at a cost of some US$132,000 each. The second phase will commence in another few months with the construction of 20 more structures, each of which will hold some 34,000 to 37,000 chickens.
Speaking at the launching, Minister of Fisheries, Crops and Livestock, Satyadeow Sawh, said that an integrated approach has been taken towards the poultry industry and commended proprietor and managing director of DIDCO, Deo Singh for the investment which will assist in making Guyana self-sufficient in poultry production while maintaining a price that is affordable to the ordinary citizen.
"This investment signifies the development that Guyana has seen and will see in the near future if we continue to have confidence in ourselves and in each other," Sawh said.
Further, the minister complimented the DIDCO management for providing an estimated 5,000 jobs for employees in the small farms, pluck shops, hatcheries, commercial farms, processing plants and feed mills.
US Ambassador to Guyana, Ronald Godard, who gave an address observed that DIDCO was a highly diversified company and an innovative trend leader, and said he had been impressed by the progress it had made.
"As the ambassador of the United States, I have been pleased that much of DIDCO's success has been based on close connections with US companies."
Noting that the best known of DIDCO's financial activities are its commercial franchises, Kentucky Fried Chicken and Pizza Hut, Godard remarked that some people did not really understand how foreign investment could stimulate economic growth. The ambassador posited that these American franchises brought with them cutting-edge management techniques, training and technology, and marketing connections with the US, which open a trading window for selling Guyanese exports.
He referred to DIDCO as an encouraging success story and a "private company that is building for the future, a better future for its employees and for all Guyanese."
Referring to the country's political climate, the US ambassador asserted that DIDCO's management and other aspiring entrepreneurs in Guyana must have political stability, which was the basic building bloc for economic growth. "Now all the citizens of Guyana and the diplomatic community have had some rude shocks that may have shaken business confidence. The crime scare has really frightened a lot of people, but I hope that we will all put that into perspective. Certainly its a serious problem and I don't want to minimize it and I certainly sympathise with those who have been victims of some of these brutal attacks on their families, but I hope you'll keep in mind that crime is a common phenomenon in other countries," Godard said.
Citing his own country, he noted that the US had experienced sharp increases in criminal activities, some more dramatic than in Guyana. "Guyana is a small society, crimes that make headlines in Georgetown would not even make the newspaper in New York and Los Angeles. But to my mind the political instability and crime spree of recent weeks are two very different issues," he said.
He predicted that the "surge in criminal activity is eventually going to pass and it will be behind us and hopefully we would have learnt from the experience and redouble our efforts to reform the institutions of law enforcement and the judiciary and provide them needed resources that will make it more difficult for a similar outbreak to occur." He pledged that his country, the international donor community and other friendly states would help in that regard.
However, he cautioned that sudden increases in criminal activities would occur again. "We see them again in the United States and its almost inevitably we'll see them here again in Guyana."
The ambassador opined that one reason why Guyanese were so frightened by the current crime wave was that the problem was being debated in a particularly acrimonious political environment, one in which criminal violence, which was normally roundly condemned by all sectors of society had been treated almost like a legitimate subject.
Godard pointed out that unfortunately there has been a pause in the political dialogue between the two major political forces of the country. "Were the dialogue functioning normally and the parliament meeting regularly, there would be a forum where public concerns about the problems in law enforcement and the justice system might be addressed." Eventually, he said, the Guyanese leaders would find the basis for resuming the political dialogue in some form, and it was clearly essential in the long term for stimulating economic growth and bridging the intolerable racial polarisation that since independence has made consensus politics so difficult in Guyana.
According to him, dialogue between the two major political parties was clearly the key to Guyana's long-term prospects for political stability. "I would like to join others who have called for resumption of the political dialogue as soon as possible," the US ambassador stated.
In addition, as a measure to bolster public confidence, Godard urged that the different ethnic groups be given an opportunity to air their concerns and be allowed to contribute ideas for possible remedies. "For this purpose I would like to suggest that the Leader of the Opposition and the President consider immediately the convening of the Ethnic Relations Commission to hold public hearings."
He said that the constitutional amendment creating this body was not an organisation of two parties but it was to be composed of representatives from seven major sectors of Guyanese society. "Its mandate includes the authority to bring people together to discuss the issues which currently divide them. To promote the elimination of all forms of discrimination on the basis of ethnicity," Godard noted.
He said its setting up could be a very healthy outlet for Guyanese to let off steam, to voice their concerns and to develop useful recommendations for the consideration of the nation's political leadership.