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{
    "id": 149656,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/149656/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 375,
    "type": "other",
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    "content": "payment of farmers’ dues. These debts affect the public sugar companies which are the most underperforming and are rendering them technically insolvent. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the Government has taken the following interventions. The short-term priority interventions that the Government has taken include enforcement of good corporate governance practices, including the introduction of performance-based management contracts; reduction of interest rates from 10 per cent to five per cent on Sugar Development Fund (SDF) loans given to factories; suspension, while seeking Parliamentary write-off – of accrued interest and penalties on SDF loans and levy which amounts to Kshs4.7 billion; disbursement of loans, approximately, Kshs1.2 billion as part payment to offset arrears owed to farmers by sugar millers; enhancing research whose funds have been increased 100 per cent from 0.5 per cent to 1 per cent of the levy collections and successful negotiation of a two-four-year COMESA safeguard period to end in February, 2012 to allow the country sufficient time to restructure the industry. We have also carried out strategic interventions which include financing the restructuring of Government-owned sugar companies; divestiture of Government shareholding through privatisation; enactment of the Sugar Amendment Bill, 2008 whose objectives include ensuring good governance in the industry, improving the administration and management of the SDF and reconstituting of the Board to have a lean and effective regulatory Board. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I would like to brief the House now on the privatisation of the sugar industry in the country. Sugar industry stakeholders identified privatisation as one of the policy measures necessary for the revitalisation of the industry. These policy measures are contained in Sessional Paper No.--- of 2008 and the Sugar Amendment Bill, 2008. The current safeguards granted to us, as a country, under the COMESA protocol are for a period of four years. This is intended to allow the sugar industry time to restructure and attain competitiveness. This reprieve was, however, subject to a number of conditions, key among them that the Government adopts a privatisation plan and grants the necessary approval for the privatisation of the four remaining public-owned sugar mills within the first 12 months of the safeguard extension. Two, the Government agency responsible for privatisation undertakes very viable steps to privatise these remaining publicly owned mills within the first 24 months of the safeguard extension. The commencement of the privatisation exercise is a step towards honouring this national commitment in support of the safeguard measures granted by the COMESA Council of Ministers. It is also progress towards the attainment of our national Vision 2030, specifically on industrialisation and poverty eradication. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the reasons as to why we think privatisation is the way to go are: One, we need new, adequate and fresh capital injection into our sugar factories. Two, we need to expand because, at the moment, we are operating at 40 per cent of the capacity---"
}