The Free National Movement (FNM) last night unveiled Manifesto 2012, pledging among other things to introduce a National Catastrophic Health Insurance Programme within three years, increase the strength of the police force to fight crime and create an 'opportunity society', which includes the implementation of a "recovery and growth agenda".
Manifesto 2012 also focuses on job creation, social development and reducing the public debt.
"Just as we delivered the greatest overhaul in decades of our criminal justice system, and of our national infrastructure and social security systems, we will deliver more during our next term," Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham pledges in the document released on the party's website, fnm2012.org.
"Our National Security Strategic Plan will guide our fight against crime, drug and gun trafficking, human trafficking, illegal immigration and poaching."
Ingraham pledged that an FNM administration will continue to build an "opportunity and shareholding society".
He said that in consultation with Bahamians, his administration would launch Jubilee Bahamas, a 10-year national plan leading to the 50th anniversary of independence.
The prime minister said a key part of this would be the recovery and growth agenda that focuses on jobs and wealth creation, small businesses, and support to entrepreneurs through innovative grants and incentives.
"We will launch the Back to the Island campaign, which we hope will become the largest migration of Bahamians back to the Family Islands in our history," Ingraham said.
"A focused heritage tourism initiative and a further incentivized creative economy will provide both sustainable economic growth and human development."
If re-elected, the FNM pledges to expand the Prescription Drug Programme to cover all workers and their families; extend the maximum period for National Insurance Unemployment benefits from 13 weeks to 26 weeks; institutionalize the National Training and Retraining Programme to build human resource capacity, and provide career development opportunities for Bahamians.
The party also pledges to incrementally increase the minimum wage over a five-year period. The national minimum wage is currently $150 per week.
On the crime front, the FNM pledges to increase the strength of the Royal Bahamas Police Force by an additional 250 officers; require the police to spend as much time at night on the streets as they do in the daytime, and significantly expand closed circuit TV coverage as a tool of crime fighting.
The party also said it would continue to expedite the naturalization and/or registration of children born abroad to Bahamian women married to non-Bahamians; continue the regularization of the status of long-term residents and of persons born and raised in The Bahamas to non-Bahamian parents, and ensure that work permits are issued only to fill posts that cannot be genuinely filled by suitably qualified Bahamians.
The FNM further said it would create a Jobs Training Fund to facilitate school leavers' participation in six-month-long, targeted training programs meant to satisfy unmet demands in the economy, and facilitate increased youth employment through the continuation of the National Job Readiness and Skills Training Programme.
It also pledges to accelerate taxation system reforms to reduce dependence on border taxes and broaden the tax base; establish a Consumer Protection Agency; continue to make Crown lands available to Bahamians at concessional rates and maximize opportunities for Bahamians to become shareholders in profitable businesses, particularly those resulting from the privatization of previously wholly government-owned enterprises.
The FNM administration would also conduct strategic overseas investment promotions targeting developers of environmentally-friendly hotels and resorts, marinas, golf courses and other amenities.
GRAND BAHAMA
The FNM said it takes note of the recent difficulties Grand Bahama has faced.
The plan outlined in the FNM manifesto will help to lift Grand Bahama out of its depressed state, by introducing new opportunities for commercial expansion and improving infrastructure, the party said in a statement, which was also released last night.
The FNM's plans for Grand Bahama include: Establishing the Grand Bahama Business Development Board to promote the further development of business in Grand Bahama; relocating government departments to the island, and promoting and incentivizing the establishment of both an aircraft and a yacht registry.
Plans also include facilitating the development of a "logistic distribution hub" for international cargo in an effective "free trade zone"; constructing a fire station in Freeport; constructing a new community health clinic for Freeport and its environs and constructing a replacement Sunset Village Fish Fry and Cultural Centre at Eight Mile Rock.
Click here to read more at The Nassau Guardian
