The All Peoples Congress Party (APC) has in their manifesto stated that they plan to bolster the economy through strengthening of macroeconomic and financial management with sound economic policies designed to significantly improve the socio economic well being of citizens.
According to the manifesto the economy continues to show positive signs of growth and wealth. The GDP looks set to grow significantly in 2012, as GDP growth has been driven by investments and expansion in agriculture, mining, construction and services as well as by the enhanced unprecedented government investment in infrastructure and electricity. But the manifesto states that the inflationary double digit increase in the period between 2007and 2012 was largely due to external factors and domestic revenue generation and collection experienced considerable improvement exceeding yearly targets over the past four years.
This increase has contributed to the GDP growth from 11.7% in 2008/2009 to 14.1% in 2010/2011. The expected iron ore exports in 2012 will significantly contribute to enhancing the national coffers, the APC Manifesto states.
Public expenditure also rose from 17.7% of GDP in 2007 to 21.8% in 2008-2009 and about 27% in 2010-2011. This they said in the manifesto was largely due to government’s strides in investing in Agriculture, Energy, Roads and Water Supply. Improvement in domestic revenue generation and collection has significantly contributed to the timely allocation of development funds to local authorities.
There has also been an unprecedented increase in exports with its attendant GDP growth from 2.9% in 2007 to 33.5% in 2010. This encouraging phenomenon is set to continue. The manifesto added. Import trends have also been encouraging whilst the exchange rate has remained relatively stable since 2009. This positive development has contributed to foreign exchange reserves sufficient enough to sustain external shocks to the economy.
The Dr. Ernest Bai Koroma’s APC-led Government, prudent in its external borrowing policy, has wisely opted for highly concessional loans to support development projects/programmes.
According to the APC Manifesto there are Core Challenges due to the continuing global financial and banking crises and the international food and fuel price increases but the manifesto identified some strategies to overcome the challenges through continued pursuance of policies that enhance peace and stability as well as those that promote donor confidence.
The manifesto also promises to boost investment in productive sectors and productivity related infrastructure and moderate spending on luxuries to improve the business climate by putting in place and implementing appropriate legislative and administrative measures, develop a Transit, Hospitality and Service Economy, Leveraging on the country’s location and deep water port for transiting containers and other cargo to Guinea, Mali and even Niger and Senegal.
The APC manifesto also plans to review and reinvigorate National Development Planning to invest more in Education, Agriculture, Infrastructure, Energy, Manufacturing, Tourism, Housing, Information Technology, Solar and Bio-Fuels.
The manifesto also state that the APC plans to institute performance and relevance based mechanism for retention and remuneration of staff in the public and civil service and to also encourage more stringent oversight by the ACC.
The APC manifesto plans to institute more measures to control inflation and ensure that public borrowing from the Bank of Sierra Leone allows money to flow and bolster the private sector.
By Saidu Bah
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