Portia Simpson unveils party platform

Portia Simpson Miller. AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa

People’s National Party (PNP), President, Portia Simpson Miller, today outlined several initiatives her party will undertake if it wins the next general election – in 2012.

High on Mrs Simpson Miller’s agenda is an initiative named the Jamaica Emergency Employment Programme (JEEP) to immediately boost employment and jolt productivity.

Mrs Simpson Miller indicated that JEEP would provide short and long term solutions for the country’s labor problems. The programme will be supported by the following: agro-processing; the cultural and creative industries; manufacturing; expansion of the micro and small business sector and development of the information and communication technology sector.

Stronger public/private sector partnerships and tax incentives for financial institutions that provide loans to stimulate production, would also be elements of the programme. The PNP president added that her government would also provide a five-year tax holiday and funding benefits for small businesses to encourage entrepreneurship.

She disclosed that JEEP will also include a project named the Audio-Visual Intervention Scheme (AVIS), which will address issues such as education and community development. She says the AVIS will be used to provide new avenues of learning for students and stimulate audio-visual production.

Simpson Miller, also suggested that the Golding government was suppressing the country’s real poverty numbers.

She says the Planning Institute of Jamaica (PIOJ), last year, estimated that 20 percent of the population was living in poverty, which is more than double the number of people who were below the poverty line in 2007. Simpson Miller says that the PIOJ figures were never revealed to the public.

Source: Go Jamaica