And while the PM met with the Chamber today, yesterday, he and his senior ministers met with the social partners and the unions to review how the country's economic performance over the past 6 months.
It's one of the commitments that the Briceno Administration made when they were trying to convince teachers and public servants that 10% pay cut was a necessary pain to survive an economic crisis.
Today, we spoke with Education Minister Francis Fonseca, who was a member of the Government's negotiating team that engaged in extended talks with the joint unions on the topic earlier this year. He said that there was a frank discussion on public finances:
Hon. Francis Fonseca - Minister of Education
"As you know the social advisory, social partnership committee arose out of our consultations with the unions, that was one of the undertakings given by the government back many months ago to establish this social partnership committee which would review the public finances on a bi-annual basis, so yesterday we had our fist in augural meeting of that social partnership committee, very productive meeting, we agreed on the terms of reference of the committee and we set out the process of establishing sub committees which would look at specific areas, revenue enhancement, tax reform and those type of things, so I think we expect a lot to come out of that partnership and as you rightly said, we are agreeing a separate meeting with the joint unions. What we presented yesterday was a 6 month report, that was for the first 6 months of the fiscal year but that is not a reflection of what is yet to come over the next 6 months, as you know inflation is high, there are many other factors, so we presented a comprehensive report to them yesterday, a very realistic report and although you're right in saying yes the economic figures are looking very good, there is a word of caution in there because there are many other factors that we have to continue to look at, inflation being one but also right now we have a closed economy, the borders are closed, so that gives you a sort of false picture of where economic growth and economic development is. So that's the only word of caution."
Daniel Ortiz
"When do you see us financially at this time having seen the performance yourself and having to make that case to the social partners yesterday?"
Hon. Francis Fonseca
"Well I think we've come a long way in one year, even I and those of us involved in the work of government the cabinet level have been surprised at the growth that we are seeing. We came into government as you all know faced with many different crisis and the economy was on life support. We are no longer on life support but we're still not out of the hospital do use a health analogy, we're not longer on the ventilator but we're still in the hospital and the economy still needs treatment, it still needs a lot of work but I think there is hope, the signs are very encouraging as you all know, agriculture has rebounded significantly, tourism is on the rise much faster than we thought it would be, those are very good signs for the rebounding of the economy."
