The Government has done well to improve the economy and according to Planning Minister Dr Bhoe Tewarie, while there is always room for improvement, they are satisfied with the performance.Tewarie said the areas where the Government has done well are business creation, job creation and investment, which has moved the economy from decline to recovery and growth.
"The growth is modest but it is real and that gives a certain buoyancy platform to the economy that we can build on," he said at the launch of the Monitoring and Evaluation Report and the 2014 Annual Report on performance.The report is based on the national performance framework for 2012 and 2015.
The Government's performance is measured using five areas: crime, law and order, agriculture and food security, healthcare services, economic growth and poverty reduction.One of the goals, Tewarie said, is to double manufacturing and service exports, although he did not state what the target was.
He said there are plans to intensify diversification and noted: "It will take more than agriculture to diversify the country. You need to do that because everybody needs food. If you have more people in your country at any one time, which can increase the production, you can increase the number of choices you have in terms of food."
Tewarie said the plan is to go into other areas, such as the maritime sector."We have to a lot more greening in terms of how we go about our business," he said.Tewarie said there was room for improvement with employment in the agriculture sector since performance there has not significantly improved.
According to the report: "248 persons were trained as semi-skilled farmers and agro-entrepreneurs under the Agriculture Now Initiative Training Unit. Of the 248 persons, 63 were trained in urban aquaponics."The minister denied that the release of the report was all about is playing politics. He said citizens need to be aware of the performance of the Government and to some extent, the report is like a manifesto of the government.
"When we put out the information to say what we have done, they say you are beating your chest too hard. In this game you can't worry too much about what the political responses would be. We are continuing the work in our ministry and we will continue that until election day."Tewarie said policies will continue whether or not the People's Partnership government "would be here or not."
He said the Cabinet has already approved a plan for monitoring and evaluation units to be established in all ministries.