Business

Finance Minister, Winston Jordan on Sunday virtually ruled out the State paying a living minimum wage and urged the predominantly Afro-Guyanese government workforce to grasp opportunities to become entrepreneurs and create wealth. Noting that the minimum wage is now GYD$64,000 up from GYD$39,000 in three years, and the take-home pay is about GYD$55,000, Jordan acknowledged that “it can’t do” and ...

The People’s Progressive Party (PPP) presidential candidate, Irfaan Ali, on Saturday announced that some retrenched sugar workers would be compensated and the two East Berbice sugar estates – Skeldon and Rose Hall-Canje – would be reopened. “The first thing we are saying to you is that we are going to reopen the estates here in Region 6 [East Berbice-Corentyne] and ...

The Town Clerk of Georgetown, Royston King, has been fired Wednesday after refusing to respond to questions from the Local Government Commission, emerging from the recent independent Commission of Inquiry (CoI) into the City’s operations, sources said. After the CoI conducted by Retired Chancellor of the Judiciary Charles Kennard uncovered several alleged misconduct, including the lease of land that did ...

Administrative regions where mining is the main economic activity could get a small percentage of the earnings, if Cabinet greenlights the draft National Mineral Sector Policy Framework and Actions, officials said. Consultant and Exploration Geologist Sherwood Lowe told reporters that the recommendation was made by Region 10 Chairman Renis Morian during an outreach to stakeholders. Lowe said his report to ...

Foreign Affairs Minister Carl Greenidge and United States Deputy Secretary of State John J. Sullivan on Wednesday discussed Guyana’s “upcoming national elections” and security matters related to the political instability in neighbouring Venezuela, a State Department spokesman said. The Guyana Government has not definitively stated whether elections would be held this year, but both the governing A Partnership for National Unity+Alliance ...

The Guyana Postal and Telecommunications Workers  Union (GPTWU) and phone company pensioners, several with more than 50 years of service, on Wednesday demanded that the Ministry of Finance publicly prove that they are receiving their correct pensions in keeping with their unbroken service. GPTWU President Harold  Shepherd said the union and the pensioners’ association have given government one week to ...

Attorney General Basil Williams on Monday denied that the withdrawal of the conferral of Senior Counsel on Attorney-at-Law, Timothy Jonas had to do with Jonas’ years of experience and not because he had entered the political arena. “I doubt that. We don’t operate like that. That might be coincidence. How do you know that he is entering the fray? It ...

ExxonMobil’s  environmental permit for the Liza Phase 2 development project is yet to be approved by Guyana’s environmental watchdog as it scrutinises the oil giant’s permit application, official sources said. An Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the agency was not entirely satisfied with a number of conflicting statements in the voluminous document that was ...

Opposition People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) presidential candidate, Irfaan Ali Sunday night announced that US$500 million in oil revenues would be pumped into agriculture. “We already have a plan and programme that will see more than US$500 million invested in Guyana from Year One under the next People’s Progressive Party/Civic government. We did this before without oil and gas and we’ll ...

About 184 telecommunication industry pensioners on Friday slammed the Guyana Government for failing to ensure they are paid their correct pensions, in keeping with a 1990 agreement for the sale of the state-owned Guyana Telecommunications Corporation (GTC) to Atlantic Tele-Network (ATN). The Guyana Postal and Telecommunications Workers Union (GPTWU)  said it would now be staging protests, seeking legal advice and ...