The ULP Regime is significantly weak in the management of public finances. They have been in office in SVG for five terms, since 2001, and yet have not been able to produce a fiscal surplus for one year during that time. Clearly, the ULP regime cannot move SVG into prosperity.
The economy is so bad in SVG that the government has to rely on International Monetary Fund Financial Assistance. Focusing the SVG economy on tourism has been very bad for our people and country.
The International Monetary Fund has warned of “economic collapse” in low-income countries, such as SVG, because of their inability to meet their debt-servicing obligations.
How can our country still be so poor in 2022 – almost 43 years after independence? We’ve had decades to create a prosperous country, but government after government has failed to achieve this.
The ULP regime has displayed poor governance, a lack of job creation, an inability to create sustainable revenue and weakened the economy so much that crime seems to be out of control. As a consequence, thousands of Vincentians have been forced to live in poverty.
Gross financial incompetence, poor financial forecasting, a lack of extrapolation and regression analysis, and a long-term inability to create sustainable sources of revenue are the core problems in SVG, and our people are suffering because government cannot manage public finances competently.
The ULP regime’s 21 year foreign policy of begging is a serious detriment to our country. It has caused the economy to stagnate. Begging is not the solution to SVG’s problems of fiscal deficits, a weak economy and high unemployment. Begging is not sustainable and cannot make our economy strong or give our people the high levels of industrial skills needed to attract foreign investment.
Under the begging regime, our country has become financially much weaker and dependent upon foreign aid, and our people have become much poorer. Economic development has been paralysed under the ULP regime begging phenomenon.
Begging will never create a surplus revenue economy or bring prosperity to our people.
Leader of SVG Green Party, Warrant Officer Ivan Bertie O’Neal BSc (Hons), MSc, MBA, believes we have to become an industrious nation and modernise our economy so that it is export orientated.
We must invest large sums of money in high-quality education and train our people to a high level of industrial skills. This will enable us to overcome the chronic high rates of unemployment and the repeated yearly poor standards of education we have seen under the ULP regime.
By being industrious, we will create thousands of new jobs, see the emergence of hundreds of entrepreneurs and new small businesses, keep more money in the country with import substitution, be better able to solve our own problems and significantly reduce our dependency on other countries.
With a Green government competently managing SVG’s finances, it will be possible to cut the price of water and electricity by 50% and create prosperity. Our people need change.
A Green government would repair the damage to our economy caused by the gross incompetence of the ULP and NDP Regimes and lead our country into prosperity