It gives me pleasure to welcome you to the Official Opening of Cabinet for the Year 2021. I hope that you have all made the most of the holiday season to get some respite and recharge yourselves in preparation for the year ahead. It is going to be a pivotal year and one during which we will all be required to maximize our individual and collective capacities.
In these extraordinary times, I wish to also express gratitude to God that we have all returned in good health. I am thankful that those of you, who were infected with COVID-19, managed to recover and regain your strength.
To suggest that the year 2020 was a challenging year would be an understatement. When we commenced our work as Cabinet at the beginning of last year, none of us anticipated what lay ahead for us.
Over the course of a challenging six-year period, this administration successfully staved off the negative effects of:
1. Unprecedented headwinds, brought about by a global economic downturn.
2. An extended period of severe periods of drought.
Having adopted a policy of fiscal consolidation while deploying economic intervention measures aimed at stimulating the economy, we were optimistic about rebounding, but alas, the arrival of COVID-19 put all of our plans into disarray.
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