(Excerpts of Dr Godwin Friday’s presentation on his weekly radio program)
The plan of the New Democratic Party is to create an economy that is working; an economy that is growing so that it would create jobs and better paid jobs for the people of St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
We suffer from low wages, the lowest in the region. We have to turn that around. We have to make our people more productive. In agriculture, we have to use new techniques to make our farmers more productive and to help them with inputs and marketing. We have agriculture as one of the pillars of the economy.
We also have the tourism sector which has tremendous potential. But, it will not grow automatically. There must be an environment that attracts and encourages people to come and invest here in St. Vincent and the Grenadines. The process must be streamlined, opened and transparent that what you are doing is no special favour from government and you have to return a favour at some point down the road. But, this is how the system functions. It is one that is designed to facilitate investment. So, that will help with our tourism economy to take off because we are still very far behind countries like St. Lucia and Antigua in terms of development of tourism when we have so much potential. So that’s an area we are going to focus on.
We speak of the blue economy, there is potential for development. How we are going to get our fishing industry and yachting sector developed. How we are going to get the Ottley Hall Marina and Ship Yard functioning and humming and providing service to our boat industry. Also, to provide jobs to young people, skilled jobs in welding, painting, diving and electrical engineering. The government is not allowing that facility to get off its knees and basically to function in the way that it can and was intended to do because they do not want James Mitchell and the NDP’s vision to be vindicated.
We will turn that around within the first term of an NDP government, that facility will be up and running and providing lots of jobs for young people, and spin off to the economy and service to our shipping industry and yachting industry. There is so much potential there. And, I can’t wait to be able to implement what we talk about here. That is to rebuild our economy, focusing on the four pillars: agriculture, tourism, the blue economy and the new economy.
The new economy: to develop sports, to develop the creative industry, to tell people in the creative industry listen, this is not just a hobby. There are some people who can actually make a living doing the things that they are passionate about and we have to provide as a country the opportunities for them to do so. That is what we talk about when we say we are going to rebuild the economy focusing on these four pillars. Once the economy is thriving, so many more things become possible, providing assistance to the schools, supplying medicine and bandages to the hospital and fixing the terrible potholes that are all across the country.
You have to focus on building the economy. Borrowing and begging bring money for the government but it’s not an alternative for a thriving economy. That money which the government borrows, is supposed to be invested in infrastructure. It then allows the private sector to grow, and we don’t see enough interest being paid by the government to make that link between the private sector especially the local private sector. Almost grudgingly they look down on the private sector because the government is spending more money than them, that the government has superior acumen for doing this sort of thing. When in fact, we have to rely on our local private sector.
We also have to attract foreign direct investment into the country, if we want the country to take off and grow at a rapid rate. One and two percent growth will not create jobs, will not create the tax revenue that we need to fix things that are broken in the country, to put the necessary investment in crime fighting; so we can bring this terrible scourge of homicides and gun related crime under control. We are offering ourselves as the vehicle for change because we know that the country needs it, and we will work in partnership with all the people of this country to make it happen.
We appreciate the public servants
Our mantra is about creating jobs. You don’t create jobs by cutting people’s jobs. Once people are performing and doing their work, nobody has anything to worry about. There are certain persons within the ULP camp who are trying to frighten people and tell them Friday will take away your jobs. That is absolute nonsense! They have nothing to worry about. What I want to see, is that this country goes forward.
The public sector has a role to play in providing services that are needed to get our country moving and to keep it abreast with technology as a modern country, in this modern world. So, we have to give them the confidence to do their jobs. They will not have to look over their shoulders and say, I don’t know if I should do it because I have not heard from the ‘big man’ as yet, as to whether doing my job is approved. We will give people the freedom to do their work.
Once you are doing your job in the way you are supposed to, you have the jurisdiction to function. You don’t have to look over your shoulder and ask if you are doing the right thing.