With  our national budget scheduled to be presented by Finance Minister

Dr Ashni Singh later this month, the Guyanese people are hoping that it will result in further improvement in their standard of living and better social services as has been the trend since this government assumed office  in 1992.
What is encouraging is that President Donald Ramotar has identified some critical and key areas that will be priorities for the national budget, including a labour market clearing house and launching of a revised central recruitment and manpower agency that will actively reach out to job-seekers and employers with components for matching placement services.
This is an excellent move by the government, because our growing army of skilled youth would increasingly need jobs in accordance with their training. Unlike the past, today we have technical institutes throughout the country as well as several other avenues of skills training such as the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport’s flagship, the Youth Entrepreneurial Skills Training (YEST) programme and various online training programmes.
Ensuring that our youths are employed has to be a priority, because we are well aware of the correlation between unemployment and crime and anti-social activities.
Christina Sloane in her article: ‘The Effects That Unemployment Has on the Crime Rate’, notes: “It may not come as a surprise that there is a correlation between unemployment and crime and that joblessness is a major motivator in theft, burglary and violent crimes that can have a monetary motivation. Unemployment is  linked only to certain types of crimes which are mostly perpetrated by men without a college education. A fall in wages, however, has a greater effect on crime, since low wages don’t always provide workers with everything they want and need
“The highest correlation between unemployment and crime is found with theft and burglary crimes, obviously because individuals without an income, being desperate for money, steal it, or steal things that they need or can sell in exchange for money. These crimes are generally carried out by less educated men. According to the Review of Economics and Statistics, wages for less skilled, less educated men decreased from 1979 to 1992, leading to a rise in the crime rate. From 1993 to 1997, wages for the same types of workers increased, and the crime rate decreased.”
According to Ms.Sloane:“Unemployment and lower wages are also linked with higher assault rates, since money, not just hatred or revenge, can be a motive in violent crimes. As with theft and burglary, this correlation in assault cases only exists in men without a college education.”
The government should therefore be highly commended for making employment opportunities a priority.
The President also spoke of simultaneous plans to increase coverage and strengthen the National Insurance Scheme’s administrative capacity and improve compliance, even as consultations are ongoing to reform the scheme based on the actuarial report.
A programme to improve efficiency in the public sector where bureaucratic delays are reduced will be introduced and supplemented with enforcement of timelines for service delivery.
This news will indeed bring relief to the thousands who on retirement experience tremendous difficulties in receiving their pensions. For some, their records of contributions cannot be located, for others they do not receive their correct pensions; while for others they have to wait an enormous time for their pensions to be processed.
However, one area the President did not mention is the issue of tax reform. But we understand that this is a complex issue,which perhaps is a bit premature to pronounce on.