ST GEORGE’S, Grenada, CMC — The main opposition New National Party (NNP) yesterday challenged the government of Prime Minister Tillman Thomas to be more creative and proactive in dealing with the struggling Grenadian economy, warning that without proper leadership the situation will get worse.

“While the New National Party acknowledges that we have been adversely impacted by the global recession, we believe that the government’s flawed economic policy coupled with their poor management have contributed quite significantly towards the current situation now faced by many of the businesses here,” the NNP said in a statement released to the media.

“It is interesting to note that while other countries in the region have also been affected by the global recession, their leadership has been able to embark on initiatives to cushion the impact of the crisis on their population,” the Keith Mitchell-led party said further.

It said it empathises with members of the local business community who have been hard hit by the economic downturn and have had to close their businesses, lay-off workers or have them work on a rotation basis “in an attempt to survive this present crisis”.

“Already, the unemployment statistics are very high, and if government fails to urgently address the situation, the crisis is likely to deepen and worsen,” it said.

The NNP, which ran Grenada’s affairs from 1995 to 2008, noted that many local businesses “are at this time expressing deep frustration with the current level of inaction as well as the seemingly uncaring treatment meted out to them by government.

“Some business entrepreneurs have raised many concerns with members of the Tillman Thomas administration as it relates to the problems they face and even identified some possible actions that can be taken by government to help alleviate the problems and in turn help to save jobs, but they feel that they have not been taken seriously.

“It is against this background that the New National Party is exhorting government to seriously and genuinely engage members of the private sector in charting the way forward, aggressively work towards attracting local as well as foreign investors and purposefully adopting a more positive approach in helping to take this country out of its present economic malaise,” the opposition party said.