Budget is “Sheer Genius” -Senator Miriam Blanchard
Hon Senator Miriam Blanchard has expressed her belief that the 2015/2016 National Budget is sheer genius.
Senator Blanchard is Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office responsible for project planning and implementation.
“Keen students of politics and economics would have intrigued adopted by the Minister for Finance in setting forth his policies and programmes for the year ahead. These are very challenging times and I cringed when it was insinuated that somehow miraculously could divorce itself from what was going on in the rest of the world and carve a particular niche for itself unrelated to the realities of what is around us in the Eastern Caribbean Currency Union, the wider Caribbean and the world. Indeed when I heard of this inference, I reflected on the sheer genius of the Hon. Prime Minister in crafting the theme for this year’s Budget, ‘Keeping it Real’.”
She went further to state that the half billion dollar Budget is crafted in a way which demands that Dominica understands its place in the global economic environment.
This is why Hon. Blanchard, an Economist, is satisfied that the budget takes steps to make greater use of Dominica’s resources for revenue generation.
She continued, “Dominica does not have an abundance of natural resources: we are not in a position to dig wells and extract oils, minerals or precious metals. As a result, we must therefore look inward more than any other Caribbean country in terms of food supply and revenue generation. We may not rely heavily on the European and North American market for tourists for our survival like some of our neighbours but it is from those same countries and beyond that we look for investments, foreign direct investments, grants and concessional financing.”
Important to note, she says, is that Dominica cannot avoid the adverse impact when much larger economies suffer damage.