Youths want PNP gov't to focus on opportunities

Young people who were among the crowd at the People’s National Party's (PNP) 86th annual conference are hopeful that a future PNP government will be more deliberate in addressing issues affecting them.

Chief among these issues they say are better employment opportunities.

“A lot of Jamaicans are coming out of college and high school and can't get a job, they have to be going overseas or getting their degree and not working in the capacity of their degree,” Domonic Dacres, a 31-year-old from Lawrence Tavern in St Andrew West Rural, said.

This concern about the country’s brain drain is one 26-year-old Jahmal Samuels, from the Andrew West Central constituency, believes the leadership of Mark Golding will address.

That is why he said he will be casting his first vote for the party.

“The Finance Minister [Dr Nigel Clarke] tek up himself and leave so we don’t need to say anything else,” the entrepreneur told The STAR.

He also expressed concern about the high crime rate and high cost of living that he said ballooned under the Jamaica Labour Party.

His brother, 28-year-old call centre worker, Jahvaughn Samuels, is agitated about the number of corruption scandals he has witnessed under the current leadership.

According to him, Golding will bring a new and better approach to the management of the country’s resources.

“Mi think is time for a change, what is going on now is that. I don't think I see the country going in the right direction, too much corruption,” he said.

“I don't think it can get any worst, I don't see any opportunities for the younger people, the economy, the scandals, everything is just off. So I just think Mark Golding is new to leadership, and I think we should give him a chance to be the prime minister and see what he has to offer,” Samuels said.

For 25-year-old Renaldo Campbell, from Westmoreland Eastern, a PNP government would implement better economic policies.

Declaring that he is not a diehard comrade, Campbell said he was pushed towards the PNP after learning of the significant salary increases granted to politicians.

"Mi a nuh dieheart,  mi just use mi head and open up mi eyes and see seh a dat eno, a just betta policies.," Campbell said.

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