Shaw dismisses Phillips' 100,000 jobs if reelected claim

Opposition Spokesman on Finance Audley Shaw has brushed aside claims by his government counterpart, Dr Peter Phillips, that 100,000 jobs will be created by the People's National Party if it is returned to office in the upcoming general election.

In a statement yesterday, Shaw said Jamaicans would have to be living in a fool's paradise to attach any credibility to Phillips' pledge.

"This is a desperate election ploy on the part of a government feverishly clinging to power and trying to drum up support by manipulating the electorate. The performance of the PNP over the past four years does not justify them being returned to power, as the country is headed in the wrong direction on many scores, and the vast majority of Jamaicans are worse off than they were four years ago," Shaw declared.

He charged that Phillips' promise to create 100,000 jobs was no different from a pledge made by the prime minister to remove general consumption tax on electricity in the lead-up to the general election of 2011.

"It is an empty promise because large-scale job creation is only derived from substantial investment across a broad spectrum of large, medium and small enterprises. This has not been happening because the PNP's economic policies have been contractionary due to burdensome taxation and savage devaluation which have combined to severely suppress consumer demand and thereby prevent business expansion,' Shaw said in a release yesterday.