Only jobs can reduce poverty- PNCR
Stabroek News
December 6, 2002
The People's National Congress Reform (PNCR) believes the most effective anti-poverty programme any government can adopt is to provide jobs for its citizens.
Speaking at the party's weekly press conference yesterday, central executive member, Deryck Bernard noted that citizens already have enough to cope with all the crime and also must cope with a deteriorating economic situation. Bernard said the party has advocated for many years the importance of attracting large-scale investment and the modernisation of the country's investment climate. "We have claimed that the government has not and indeed is incapable of organising itself to bring to Guyana the scale and variety of private investment that our economy needs."
He said the only way forward for Guyana's economy is through investment which would provide the jobs for citizens and the revenues for governmental programmes and services. Bernard said to date the record of the government on this score is disastrous and ordinary working men and women are painfully feeling the effects. He said the fact is that the ruling party has no major investment to show for its time in office.
Among other things to improve the economic conditions of the country, the party advocates an attractive incentive package which would encourage and motivate investors by providing some certainty regarding the intentions of the government. The PNCR also advocates tax reforms and liberalisation of the tax structure, the strengthening of capital markets and the modernisation of the insurance and other financial sectors. The party believes also that the privatisation of all state-owned media, the re-establishment of a development bank, the enactment of a Freedom of Information Act and capitalising on Guyana's strategic location in the privately funded Guyana 21 programme are all measures which can help lift the country out of its economic doldrums.
