In 1996, Leader of SVG Green Party, Warrant Officer Ivan Bertie O’Neal BSc (Hons), MSc, MBA, said to the people of SVG that the Cable & Wireless telecoms monopoly was bad for the SVG economy. Almost everyone said he was wrong and that our country was too small for more than one telecoms company.
People thought that the introduction of competition would result in the loss of jobs in the telecom industry, but he begged to differ.
Warrant Officer Ivan Bertie O’Neal BSc (Hons), MSc, MBA conducted a relentless, one-man protest to abolish the Cable & Wireless telecom monopoly. As we all know now, he was successful and it was abolished.
Today, SVG has multiple telecoms companies; competition has reduced prices significantly; quality has improved, and more importantly, the poor and low-income groups are now able to enter the telecom market. Many people today have mobile phones and have the ability to communicate (via telephone) at prices that are more affordable today, compared to the days under the Cable & Wireless telecoms monopoly.
In 1996, neither the NDP or ULP had the vision or positivity to see that breaking up the Cable & Wireless telecoms monopoly would bring significant benefits to the people of SVG.
Today in 2022, we have a humble message to the people. We need to cut loose from the NDP and ULP regimes, which by design and inability, have almost destroyed the economy of SVG. They have been flawed in their management of the SVG economy.
These parties beg, borrow and squander public money and scarce resources. The implications of this negative mind-set have resulted in a high rate of national debt, high unemployment, the perpetuation of poverty and illiteracy, and a society polarized by party affiliation.
More seriously, this negative mind-set has been trying to deal with the symptoms of our failing economy, rather than the causes of why the economy is failing.
No country can truly develop under such a negative mind-set. SVG Green Party would adopt a strategy of wealth creation, sustainable job creation, high-quality human capital development and prudent management of the economy.
SVG Green Party’s philosophy and mission is to substantially restructure the economy of SVG as a going concern and protect and preserve the fragile environment of SVG.
There are a number of commodities that are not being utilised that could bring in revenue for the country. We could process aloe vera, fruit juices, peanut butter and herbal teas. Manufacturing goods in the country will provide added value, thereby increasing export income.
SVG needs a Green economy. We need: our own science university, new agro-processing factories, a fish processing and canning industry, to export fresh water in tanker loads, to abolish VAT, free education from pre-school to university, to grow more of our own food and import less – especially now with the war in Ukraine and its impact on increasing global food prices – to empower and educate the people, an end to tax exemptions in Mustique, to wave goodbye to Taiwan and a multi-variable economy driven by indigenous productive sectors.
These are the seeds of change that would initiate Green shoots of economic recovery in 2023 and beyond and create the thousands of new jobs that are desperately needed.
Only visionary and positive leadership under a Green government can achieve these goals.