‘Call me capitalist, call me whatever, it doesn’t matter’

St Vincent and the Grenadines needs to have a mixed economy, one that will continue to build on the strong democracy on which it stands.{{more}}

And that is why Arnhim Eustace, Leader of the Opposition, says that he is promoting a policy for there to be greater emphasis on the private sector.

“The government does not have the resources to hire all the sorts of people it needs, it doesn’t have the capacity to cover costs,” Eustace reasoned, adding that government spending on wages accounted for over 51 per cent of the recurrent expenditure.

“And when you tell me you’re socialist, you’re telling me that you don’t want private sector at all.

“I will look at activities and if I feel that they are running in a direction which is not consistent with our ability to attract investment and strengthen our economy, then I’m not to touch it.

“Call me capitalist, call me whatever, it doesn’t matter,” Eustace said.

Rather, what the country needs, said Eustace, is to see the economy improve and in his opinion the socialist view has the potential of doing more harm than good.

In supporting his point that he does not approve of a socialist state of any kind, Eustace reiterated his position on this country signing on to the Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas or ALBA.

According to Eustace, there was no state consultation, yet this country’s Prime Minister signed on to the agreement.

He expressed that ALBA was centred on the ideology of socialism.

“For most of us, it means state control of the economy and state control of various programmes and activities,” Eustace told SEARCHLIGHT.

He referred to the Venezuelan Leader’s (Hugo Chavez) nationalization of the oil industry, censorship of the media and the refusal of people’s right to freedom of speech.

“That is what people are seeing at the present time, and that is the type of socialism I see with the embracing of ALBA.”

But there were also consequences which would be detrimental to the country’s development should there be the adoption of a socialist type regime, Eustace said.

This had to do with the issue of attracting foreign investment.

He said that this country’s affiliation with ALBA has introduced speculation among the international community and this could be potentially damaging to attracting foreign investment.

“Gonsalves can make his pronouncements, but we can’t get away from the perception that our country is being linked in a particular way,” Eustace said.

In the talk of the pursuit of a more capitalist society, Eustace spoke of the need for stringent regulatory guidelines, a function the government needs to perform.

This according to Eustace is to ensure that businesses are up to par to be registered in the country and to avoid the situation of another economic meltdown where persons become vulnerable and risk losing their investments.