BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – THE top level of the opposition Nevis Reformation Party (NRP) continues to throw verbal punches as the sitting Concerned Citizens Movement (CCM) administration, with the most recent suggesting that since assuming office this year it has failed at creating and executing a proper growth plan for the island’s economy.
Speaking in an exclusive interview with SKNVibes, Political Leader of the NRP the Hon. Joseph Parry expressed that the CCM has been in government for the past nine months and still there is no growth plan.
"We stated quite clearly in January that the time had come where you needed to have a growth package, a growth package which means trying to have economic activity to employ people and bring money into the treasury, that you could not continue to borrow to keep the country afloat or to keep the government afloat. They argued during the campaign that they had programmes. After nine months they have come with no programmes, so they would continue to borrow to keep the government going," Parry said.
The former Premier explained reasons for his comments about the lack of an economic growth plan by the sitting administration.
“The government needs to demonstrate that it is leading. There is absolutely nothing coming from the government. Mr. Amory was in Washington speaking to Nevisians last Wednesday night. This is what Mr. Amory said to them, these are his plans: to restore the Government House, to build two other government offices, to develop geothermal energy and to partner with the private sector. Now, in the name of God, is that a plan? That can’t be a plan!"
Parry said he does not believe the current administration's plans for the geothermal project is "concrete" and that plans for the restoration of Government House would do nothing to stimulate the economy.
Regarding the Nevis Island Administration's expressed plans to partner with the private sector, Parry said the private sector in Nevis is only the "distribution sector" and a partnership between that and the government would not stimulate the economy.
“We don’t have factories, we don’t have plants that bring in foreign exchange in the country. That is what we need…you need activity that brings foreign exchange into the country and create jobs…”
Meanwhile, the NRP – which ran the affairs of Nevis for approximately six years before demitting office in January 2013 – had organised a demonstration last Friday where its supporters marched through the streets of Charlestown in protest against - among other things - what they describe as the wanton victimisation of NRP supporters.
According to Parry, some 100 persons were fired from the government jobs after the CCM took office. Despite this, he indicated that "the government's payroll has not shrunk...all they did is put off our people to employ theirs. That is all they did..."
The former Premier claimed that CCM has failed the people of Nevis and continues to do so.
"They failed them when they were campaigning and told them they would not tell them what their plans are until they got into office, and they have failed them by getting into office and now have no plans to give them. In other words, they used deception and they used trickery and, having done that, they are in there now with no direction, not knowing where to go (or) what to do."
