The main opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) was able to attract a wide-cross section of business and community leaders to its one-day conference on the economy aimed at paving the way for the policies that the party hopes to pursue if its forms the government after the next general election.

The conference, held under the theme, "Making The Economy Work For All" was held last Friday at the Grenada Trade Center at Morne Rouge, St. George's. It attracted a number of leading executives from the private sector including hoteliers, and officials from rival political parties like the Grenada United Labour Party (GULP), and ex-members of the ruling party.

In his address, Political Leader of the Congress, Tillman Thomas told the broad-based gathering that there seems to be no coherent strategy to stimulate the economy by the ruling New National Party (NNP) government of Prime Minister, Dr. Keith Mitchell.

According to Thomas, the ruling party is engaged in an adhoc approach to development in Grenada which has proven to be costly to the citizens of the country. He pointed to the Levera experiment by the NNP administration as a classical example of the type of development that was taking place on the island over the years.

He said that project was intended to enhance the well-being of the people of Grenada but the so-called investors left a millstone of a 29 million debt for the people of Grenada to pay. The NDC Political Leader called for transparency to be seen in whatever is being done in the name of national development.

He said that he believes the Mitchell Government which should be setting the pace for growth and development is too preoccupied in defending allegations of financial improprieties within and outside of Grenada.

This is a clear reference to multi-million dollar bribery related lawsuits filed in the United States in recent weeks against both Prime Minister Mitchell and his deputy, Gregory Bowen. Thomas stated that the time has come for Grenadians to look for an alternative in government that will see the country embark upon a policy of development that is beneficial to everyone.

He challenged the audience to ponder on some critical issues in order to enable Grenada to forge ahead in the near future. These include the sectors that should receive special focus and resources at this point in time, as well as the current alarming increase in the cost of living and the steps that should be taken to solve this grave problem which is undermining the real income of Grenadians on a whole, especially those at the bottom of the income ladder.

The NDC boss identified a number of industries and sectors including agriculture and fishing that can be developed so as to bring about the much needed foreign exchange, create employment and enable food security in the country.

During the conference, the much anticipated presentation by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) did not materialise as officials from the Washington-based organisation failed to show up as earlier agreed. The fund was invited to make a presentation on the macro-economic profile of Grenada and the challenges.

 

Shadow Minister Burke

In informing delegates of the no-show of the IMF, NDC's Shadow Minister of Finance, Nazim Burke said that they had originally received both a verbal and written acceptance notice from the IMF team.

However, Burke stated that the IMF later insisted that an invitation must be made to the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Finance, Lenox Andrews or his deputy to make a presentation at the NDC conference.

He told the gathering that prior to the condition laid down by the IMF team, an invitation was already sent by the NDC to Andrews inviting him to attend the conference but without making a presentation. He said that several attempts were then made by him personally to contact Andrews to ask him to make a presentation at the conference but without success.

Burke indicated that he later received a call from the IMF Mission Chief for Grenada, Nancy Wagner in which she said that after having spoken with the PS in Finance, the IMF did not consider it wise to make a presentation at the opposition conference unless government agreed to make a presentation as well.

"I want to assure you that based on my presentations with the International Monetary Fund, they had every intention to be here and they were quite eager about being here", he said.

"Why they are not here today (Friday), why the change in their position, I will leave it to your own thinking," he added.