EMPLOYMENT AND GROWTH
The most effective way of alleviating poverty is the provision of jobs at living wages and opportunities for self-employment. This will evolve from an integrated employment strategy that prioritises the:
·    Stimulation of local and foreign investment by providing strategic infrastructure, targeted tax incentives and radically less burdensome bureaucratic procedures
·    Creation of special funds for disadvantaged communities, and establish/equip centres of excellence devoted to creating skills for the public and private sectors
·    Implementation of the self-employment training component of the employment and growth strategy to prepare new entrepreneurs for entry into the modern services sector e.g. computer programming and software development, business process management and medical transcription.
·    Implementation of a quick-acting, results-oriented projects for job creation such as an Environment Enhancement Programme (EEP) and a  Capital and Infrastructure Rehabilitation Programme (CIRP) for Georgetown and other urban and rural communities.
·    The interlocking challenges of a business environment made poor by restricted access to capital and credit.  We intend to explore the initiatives of existing international SME aid agencies which provide financial and technical support, e.g. the G-20 Financial Inclusion Initiatives, the SME Finance Challenge, Feed-the-Future Initiative, the EIB’s Micro-Finance Fund, and the EUR 100Mn Rural Impulse Fund II.
(Go to www.apnuafc.net/manifesto to download)