SKN moving in the right direction

(ZIZ)– Despite the claims of members of the opposition, Minister of Information, The Hon Nigel Carty, has stated that St. Kitts and Nevis is in a much better financial and economic position than other countries in the region.

Speaking during last week’s sitting of the National Assembly, Minister Carty said all around the region, governments are cutting salaries and reducing the workforce.

“That’s happening in St. Lucia. Government is trying to negotiate with the workers through the unions to them a reduction in salary and its either that or more tax increases and the people can’t pay anymore taxes…in Grenada what is happening Mr. Speaker, again a reduction in salaries and a 70 percent reduction in the workforce. You are sending home 70 out of every 100 workers. That is what is happening in Grenada; that is what is happening in Grenada Mr. Speaker. What is it that is happening in Barbados? Three thousand workers are being laid off because the government cannot afford to pay them,” he said.

However, according to the minister, it is the total opposite here in St. Kitts And Nevis where the government is now looking at increasing the minimum wage.

“So when sensible people in our country survey the region and the world and recognize what is happening in those countries and come and look at what is happening here, surely you can say things are not perfect because we are not in heaven, but we are much better off than all those people around us everywhere. We are better off and we are moving in the right direction Mr. Speaker. Nobody is pretending to be a miracle worker, to be Jesus Christ or that we don’t have problems. All we are saying is that we are living in a real country, in a real world where we have real problems but we have a government that is certainly in tuned with the issues and those problems and is doing everything to move us in the right direction,” he said.