Grant highlights PAM’s plan to reduce cost of living

Basseterre, St.Kitts, Janaury 22nd 2010 (PAM Public Relations Office):- Mr. Lindsay Grant Leader of the People’s Action Movement has declared that it’s vital that voters ensure that change is achieved through electing a PAM administration.  He was at the time outlining PAM’s commitment to reduce cost of living immediately after taking office.
 
Grant at the launch of his party’s manifesto said that it is evident that the economy has contracted.  He explained that this is demonstrated by the reduction in spending power of the people as cost of living continues to rise.  He said that he wants to reiterate his commitment that in the short term a PAM Government will remove the duties on all food.
 
“We have already gotten the commitment from the business community that the savings will be passed on to the consumer. We will also remove the fuel surcharge. These two initiatives alone will have an immediate impact on your pockets,” Grant said.
 
Grant noted that he is confident of the initiatives working, noting that it will help in creating opportunities for the advancement of people’s lives while helping them to inculcate a culture of being able to save. “Instead of buying biscuits only you would be able to buy both biscuits and bread. Instead of eating chicken backs the whole week you would be able to buy chicken breast, leg and whole chicken. But that is the immediate short term and speaks to food and energy,” Grant said.
 
Grant told supporters that his party is aware that there are structural problems in the economic system which needs fixing before his administration could reduce the cost of living in the long term. He suggested that the import bill is among the highest in the region noting that it is nothing short of scandalous that the Douglas led administration closed the sugar industry and has sought to do nothing to boost the Federation’s agricultural production so as to at least help in ensuring that people can feed themselves.
 
“It is one thing to sell land to the highest bidder but a government is duty bound to ensure the food security of its people and   right now my brothers and sisters our food security is in a perilous state,” he said.
 
Grant said that should there be a natural disaster in the south of the US mainland the Federation’s supply of a number of commodities will be interrupted. “…and these are food items that could be produced here. So when PAM talks about food production we are not talking about import substitution we are talking about guaranteeing our food supply,” he said.
 
The PAM leader said that to support his initiatives he will be implementing two key policies which he stressed will aid in achieving his objective of maintaining food security while reducing cost of living. He pointed out he will immediately establish a land use policy to clearly demarcate areas to be reserved for farming and other agricultural activities and to expand the linkages with the farmers cooperative to ensure effective crop diversity and a redistribution of the wealth gained from farming, along with seeing to the training needs and development assistance required by those in agriculture.