Ž—• ’ƒ”– ‘ˆ ˜‹•‹‘ǫ

Sir,

In a country with one of the highest unemployment rates in the world, one wonders what measures are being taken to protect the vulnerable from abject poverty. One would expect government to be searching for solutions to reduce unemployment and the high cost of living in the country, such as maximising food production in order for us to become self-reliant instead of being dependant on imported food, and also reducing our dependence on expensive imported electricity by investing in more power generation. However, instead of mitigating the effects of unemployment and the high cost of living, government, it would appear, is contributing to the high cost of living by intentionally opting not to invest more in agriculture and essential infrastructure projects such as power stations and dams. It is obvious that it is due to this that the price of electricity, which is expensive, will keep going up.

Construction costs in the country are also very high and with the introduction of the relatively newly-formed construction industry council, those costs are set to increase dramatically, making it even more difficult for the majority of the people to afford proper houses. Even landlords, who already pay three separate taxes, in the form of VAT on building materials, rates and tax, will find it hard to provide affordable rent if they wish to make any profit.

While it is understandable that the construction industry, as with all industries, does need to be regulated, the supervision of construction projects should be undertaken by a professional team of architects and engineers responsible for designing buildings. The increased costs emanating from fees and levies being imposed on people will reduce their ability to build or rent proper structures, and one can only guess what kind of scenario this will lead to as there are already many slums scattered around the country. It seems as though we are moving far away from achieving the envisioned First World status.

Concerned citizen