Business People Can Help Economy Grow IF…..

By R Joyclyn Wea

Former Finance Minister, David Farhat says the local business people can help to grow the economy if they are mobilized as partners.

Farhat asserted that the government of Liberia should have a concerted effort or relationship with business people in order to extend their businesses which will create employment opportunities for young people.

Making the statement at his Capitol Hill office of the University of Liberia, the former Finance Minister noted that government must ensure that the business community is friendly to all investors.

“We cannot continue to be insulting the people every time; rather we need to negotiate with them.

Farhat further indicated “we don’t always have to look across the river, we can look within at money in the bank is not for the bank, you cannot go to the bank and the bank give you money because the bank has to make sure you can pay back.”

He emphasized the need to cut down expenditure so that the government can begin paying its domestic debts.

“The government owes a lot of people and they need to start paying them because when these people are paid, they would be able to bring in more goods and their businesses will start to grow in that way; they would also be able to employ more people,” Farhat maintained.

The former Finance Minister further indicated that a nation is not only built by through money, but rather policy.

“The country we know now do not have money so he can target those institutions that will bring hope to people. When people go to court you don’t have to get money to buy justice, but you will get justice and that’s how a nation is built.

“When you have one administration and it changes to another one, there is something we called a wait and see period, you don’t know what policy the new government will bring, therefore, we need to wait and see for the first six months to know which direction the country is going under the Weah’s administration,” he said.