00:00I think it was a mixed bag. The minister tried to tread lightly given the
00:06constraints that he's facing and I mean the constraints are no secret in terms
00:11of the challenges that we're facing. What I felt fell short was a cohesive
00:18strategy in terms of economic transformation so I think the theme of
00:21the budget presentation does include economic transformation etc etc and the
00:26minister touched on a number of issues which themselves could form part of an
00:32of a strategy but to me the connective tissue is not there to let us know how
00:37all of these issues tie together to get us to a particular outcome and a
00:41particular end point. Dr Marlene Atts says the $250 raise in some government
00:46grants must also be explored to see its effectiveness. We also have to question
00:50the purchasing power of that $250 how far is it going to stretch and then of
00:54course we have the conversation around what people have now. She says while
00:59the finance minister referenced Moody's and IMF reports to show growth in the
01:03economy there are cautions in those reports that we must pay attention to.
01:07Yes we are not out of the woods but we're not badly off but what was remiss
01:13was the minister didn't mention some of the structural challenges that these
01:16agencies have been cautioning us on and some of those structural issues include
01:21the continued reliance on the energy sector we know for the foreseeable future
01:25that gas is it that you know a lot is predicated on buoyancy in that particular
01:32sector. Independent Senator Francis Lewis who is a business strategist with over 30
01:37years of regional expertise says he will be examining Minister Tanku's budget for
01:42two things in particular. It really has to do with two things that I at this stage
01:48that I'm focused on. The first is how do we get the economy to move in a very real
01:54and significant way because you can't pay what you do have and the second is how do
02:00we create opportunities so that those opportunities can be felt across the
02:08country. Dominic Ramroop, TV6 News.
02:10you
