BASSETERRE, St Kitts – The St Kitts-Nevis Labour Party (SKNLP) made a significant contribution to the socio-economic improvement of the people of St Kitts and Nevis during its last tenure in office has unveiled its 2020 vision ahead of the next general elections.
SKNLP political leader Dr Denzil L Douglas said the 2020 vision will be inclusive and will put every man woman and child, regardless of age, race, creed or socio-economic background at the very center of the national development and prosperity.
” It means that while we recognize that St Kitts and Nevis was able to make significant strides over the 20 years of the last labour administration, there are still many persons who are now falling through the cracks, especially after the last five years of this uncaring Timothy Harris-led Team Unity administration. A lot was done by the former Labour administration to alleviate poverty. In fact, the records show that between 1995 and 2015 Kittitians and Nevisians saw a 67 percent improvement in their quality of life and material well-being. They experienced dramatic improvement to their health and longevity, access to education and improved standards of living,” said Dr Douglas on his weekly radio programme “Ask the Leader,” on Tuesday night.
Boasting that real progress was brought to the people during the 1995 to 2015 period, the former prime minister noted that in the last five years as his team has been going door to door, “we have recognized that a lot of people are falling by the wayside.”
“Many of you have invited us into your homes and have shown us your living conditions. We have listened to your stories of hardship. So many of our young people, especially our young men, who want to work, cannot find work. What we recognize is that while so many have been empowered and have greatly benefited from the progressive economic and social policies that have been made in the past, still too many, because of various circumstances are not benefiting directly from all the progress that has been taking place. This has been made worse over the last five years where the slowdown in the economy has brought so much unemployment, underemployment, and hardship,” said Dr Douglas, who further pointed to the closure of factories and small businesses on Nevis and St Kitts and the skyrocketing high cost of living that has been strangling small and large households.
He told listeners that the NextGen SKN will make job-creation a priority.
“We will make sure that our young people are provided with opportunities that would allow them to come off the streets and become productive members of our society. Our NextGen SKN economy will deliberately target these people: the single mother, trying to complete her degree online while working at the factory and raising three children; the small contractor, who has not been able to get himself properly certified and who, as a result, hasn’t been getting any government projects.”
“I am also talking about the young carpenter who is struggling to build himself a proper workshop and the young entrepreneur who has big dreams and big business ideas but cannot find affordable lines of credit to make his/her dream a reality. These are the kinds of people our NextGen plans must touch so that we all can build wealth and prosper,” Dr Douglas told listeners.
