Tobago economist Dr. Vanus James says the national budget presented by the UNC administration failed to address some of the country's most pressing economic challenges. Here's more.
00:00The national budget presented in Parliament last Monday focused on providing financial relief to citizens, among other measures.
00:08However, economist and political activist Dr. Vanna Shames says,
00:13Finance Minister Dave Tanku's budget fell short on addressing some of Trinidad and Tobago's fundamental economic problems.
00:20He spoke at a movement for social justice forum on Tuesday evening.
00:24It's the high levels of undereducation we have in the labor force of the country today and has had for a long time.
00:35And that's somewhere near 60 percent of our labor force and our employed workers, to be quite frank, is undereducated by the standards set up by the country for GC or CX.
00:54subjects, even with training, or less, 60 percent thereabouts in our labor market.
01:02And in my conversation in Princeton with Louis, he told me this is the most important measure of underemployment in an economy.
01:12So we have that problem still here. And that, by the way, is the basis of the CPEP-URP problem.
01:18Dr. James criticized the budget for failing to acknowledge the shortcomings of the previous administration in addressing the country's core economic issues.
01:27He stressed that each budget should offer clear solutions.
01:31So to get on the right track, you have to be addressing undereducation in the labor force.
01:38That's not done in this budget, as far as I could tell.
01:42You have to come out with clear the steps that you're going to take to deal with the foreign exchange constraint.
01:49I have not seen much on that in this budget.
01:53And there was no reference at all to the main barrier, which is the authoritarian system of government that we run.
02:01And there's also no effort to interpret why Dr. Rowley failed so miserably over 10 years.
02:10I mean, he supervises a collapse of the economy by 23 percent.
02:17Real GDP fell over the 10 years or so.
02:20Dr. James acknowledged that while the budget provides some relief to citizens, it lacked a focus on the major issues affecting the country.
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