She was speaking following the election of officer to the Women and Youth Arms of her United National Congress.
“The Opposition is spreading propaganda that my Government had not delivered, so I want to deal with this and show much we have delivered,” she said.
She spoke of the Children’s Life Fund, the increased minimum wage from $9 to $12.50, additional old age pension to $3,000 for more than 52, 790 senior citizens, the distribution of lands to former sugar workers, speedy compensation for flood victims among others.
She added that the Works Ministry has been involved in major infrastructure development which includes the start of the 26km Navet Trunk Main to improve water supply and the highway from San Fernando to Point Fortin.
Persad-Bissessar will formally turn the sod for the construction of the first phase of the billion-dollar project on January 26. Those two projects alone will deliver over 20,000 jobs.
The Prime Minister also spoke about her government's commitment to education, noting that by the end of her five year term every child in the secondary school system will have a laptop. She dismissed criticism from the "naysayers" who have said the laptops for first form students is a waste of money.
And she pledged that the laptop program will continue. She also said she has instructed the minister if education to have the new batch of laptops painted in the national colours - red, white and black.
Persad-Bissessar said it is critical for the young generation to be equipped with the most modern technology because the world has changed and the youth must embrace that change or the country would be left behind.
She also reminded her audience that the GATE program has been expanded to include 35,327 applicants, while 1,522 students have been granted loans under the Higher Education Loans Program (HELP) at a cost of $32.4 million.
Persad-Bissessar also spoke of advances in housing, with the distribution of houses to dozens of people, some of whom had waited for 40 years for a place to live. And she said the housing ministry will soon begin work on 6,500 new housing units.
Another achievement, she said, was the establishment of a people's ministry, which has been performing well. And she also noted her government's frontal attack on crime which has seen a 10 per cent reduction in serious crime since she took office.
Related: Feature: The PP government has been working; the evidence is there to see
Later in the evening presiding officer Joe Sirju announced the election results.
Women's Arm officers:
- Women’s arm Chairman— Khadijah Ameen
- Vice-chairman— Stacy Roopnarine
- Welfare Officer— Cyrilla Cooper
- Secretary— Melissa Ragoonanan
- Public Relations Officer—Hyacinth Rampersadsingh
- Assistant Secretary— Judy Dinbar
- Chairman— Nicholas Morris
- Vice-chairman— Thelston Jagoo
- Secretary— Naseen Rahman
- Assistant secretary—Kerrie Roberts
- Public Relations Officer—Devindra Heeraman
- Welfare Office— Glen Ramjeewan
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