– Ali says government under his watch will be more inclusive

THE People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) is pushing that if elected to government, it will create 50,000 new jobs during the first five years in office.

The party made the disclosure, along with a glimpse into some of its plans and programmes of the party’s elections manifesto.
In sharing aspects of excerpts of the party’s 2020 – 2025 Manifesto titled “Our Plan for Prosperity,” the party’s Presidential Candidate, Irfaan Ali, on Friday, divulged summaries of the manifesto at the PPP Headquarters Freedom House.

Adding that a full copy of the party’s manifesto will be presented in January 2020, the former minister of housing pleaded with the electorate for his party to be heard and to be given another chance at governing Guyana.

He said that the partial manifesto can be found on the PPP/C Facebook page. He promised that a government, under his watch, would be more inclusive and would work for all Guyanese, those who support him and those who do not.

Underscoring some of the topics and issues that will be dealt with, Ali said a PPP government will address:- more jobs and less crime; better education; reduction of the cost of living; removal of VAT on utilities and exports; discarding of curfews; free university within five years; restoration of bonus for joint services; no additional taxes; reversal of VAT on building material and on mining, farming and forestry equipment amongst others.

Ali said the PPP/C will provide the enabling environment and incentives for expansion of existing businesses and emergence of new businesses by removing obstacles to growth.
He said the traditional productive sectors must continue to play a significant economic and social role in the economy. Unlike the Oil and Gas sector which is capital intensive, mining, fisheries, agriculture, sugar, bauxite, rice and forestry are labour intensive and employ a significant percentage of the population.

Ali said Guyana’s infrastructure, including infrastructure for transport (overland/road, air and river), utilities (water, telecoms/ICT, electricity), sea and river defence, drainage, garbage collection/sanitation, new hospitals and schools must be expanded, modernised and become more efficient to support a flourishing economy.

“When we speak of the economy and jobs, we are not only talking about the creation of jobs, but we are speaking about the creation of higher paid jobs, higher up the value scale and for this, it requires investor confidence, it requires us pushing boundaries and pushing the envelope and it requires us training our human capacity and changing the system, the education output to meet that economic requirement of our country. For this to happen, we must have a strong analysis of the gap, as to where we want to be as against what we have to take us there,” Ali said.

The PPP/C Presidential Candidate began and ended his speech by calling on persons who have not historically supported the PPP and those who walked away to vote for the party come March 2, 2020.