THE EDITOR: I commend Dr Rowley on the resumption of his Conversations with the Prime Minister on Tuesday. This briefing of the population focused on the impact on TT of the invasion of Ukraine by Russia and the rise in commodity prices in particular - the increase in the price of oil and gas.

This report to the population is as timely as it is informative. It is able to ward off misleading expectations of an oil and gas bonanza without consideration for the attendant heavy, onerous subsidy expenditure in order to ease the tremendous burden that everyone, in particular the poor, would be called upon to bear without such a subsidy.

This subsidy, although guaranteed to throw the loan to GDP ratio completely out of alignment, thereby providing migraine headaches for the Government, is absolutely necessary to avoid runaway inflation, malnutrition, increasing crime and social upheaval.

But the Government must not stop there. It must fire up the people to take example from the Ukrainian people in standing up to an external aggressor. In our case, we are called upon to defend our standard of living by pursuing diversification objectives, including serious involvement in agriculture, agro-processing and import substitution, as well as conservation of water and electricity and improved public service delivery.

The Government must underscore the absolute seriousness of this discourse by rerunning this conversation, breaking it down further to attract the attention of all the population and bolster the understanding of all.

Public Utilities Minister Marvin Gonzales also apprised citizens of the Government's plans to restructure the Water and Sewage Authority (WASA) in order to provide the nation with an improved water supply.

At a subsequent programme on i95, Member of Parliament Foster Cummings explained further Government's plans to promote economic diversification mainly through a youth apprenticeship and development programme, which would include non-traditional agriculture and national service.

However, the view was expressed that not enough was being done to disseminate information in respect of the roll-out of programmes such as these. Perhaps communication and marketing remain an issue.

Finally, once again I commend the Prime Minister for his timely report to the populace on current international and local developments guaranteed to significantly affect our economy.

While this approach is positive, the PM is reminded that greater effort may be required to motivate and build citizens' support, trust and understanding if the unavoidable adjustment process and diversification programmes are to succeed.

D THOMAS

via e-mail

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