Mr Holness will have no time to dilly-dally

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

PRIME Minister Bruce Golding, in one of his last pronouncements as leader of Government, yesterday morning expressed relief that there was now evidence that measurable economic growth was evident in the Jamaican economy.

At the panel discussion launching the Inter-American Development Bank's Compete Caribbean programme, several very telling points were made about fostering economic growth in the Caribbean. Mr Golding used the opportunity to point to the fact that getting the macroeconomic fundamentals in order is a prerequisite for growth and that Jamaica's macroeconomic fundamentals were the best in decades, citing the rate of inflation and the low level of interest rates. He, however, reluctantly recorded his impatience with the paucity of local investment.

The new administration to be led by Mr Andrew Holness will have to start addressing this issue from day one. He will have no time to dawdle.

Make no mistake about it, in the context of a prolonged global economic crisis, external factors are not favourable for growth as is evident in tourist arrivals, remittances and the shortage of foreign investment. Unfavourable external economic circumstances are compounded by the lack of fiscal space to permit expansionary policies as a stimulus to growth. Several Caribbean countries are heavily in debt at a time when the taxable capacity of their economies has contracted.

Sound and stable macroeconomic fundamentals are a necessary but not sufficient condition for economic growth. If growth is to be sustained in the medium to long run, then structural and institutional rigidities will have to be reformed or removed.

We found quite useful Ambassador Dr Richard Bernal's call for strategic global re-positioning involving the continual enhancing of international competitiveness of existing exports such as tourism, as well as his suggestion that new sources of earning foreign exchange had to be developed based on the competitive advantage of local entrepreneurs and strategic corporate alliances with foreign investors. This, he argued, had to be complemented with a continuous recalibration of a macroeconomic framework which enjoyed political and private sector consensus.

Sir Alister McIntyre, the former Caribbean Community (Caricom) secretary-general and former chancellor of the University of the West Indies, challenged the Caribbean private sector to get involved with transformative regional projects. He pointed to the Guyana-Brazil highway, railroad and port complex, the Belize-Guatemala highway and the expansion of the Panama Canal.

The private sector must seize these opportunities if the Caribbean is not to become an economic backwater.

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COMMENTS (5)

James St. John
10/14/2011

Mr. PM Sir, with respect, you talked your way into this mess we find ourselves in, and now on your way out, you are still talking to mess us up even further...Please Sir tone down a little, 'cause your utterances are making it more difficult for our "'Young"' Leader "Prince Andrew" as a matter of fact, why are you still holding on ? Don't you trust the "Youth" We all think he can manage from here on.... thanks for your time in office, or is it that "POWER IS SO SWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEET".

fall mouth
10/12/2011

Your paper reported that 2 politicians are among those to be extradited to the U.S., but you thought this editorial was more important than that. You also thought some little forgotten past president of the JTA (who appeared on a PNP platform and has since apologized) rated a cartoon more THAN politicians to be extradited.
This is the first time that this has ever happened in JA - a PM resigning before the end of his first term and politicians to be extradited, but you found other things more important. Strange, very strange indeed!

James Bond
10/12/2011

"Mr Holness will have no time to dilly-dally" Oh please don't be silly! He will have so much time on his hands he will be a man of leisure because he will be a very young opposition leader.

Nadine Johnson
10/12/2011

Mr Editor you still boosting up for the JLP, Like you don't get the Memo. Extradiction coming for Politicians. The good name of Jamaica again is being drag in the dirt again..

Stephen Fox
10/12/2011

You really mean that the number of citizens participating in the private sector has to increase. You also mean that we need to educate and encourage our citizens to be successful entrepreneurs. After all the private sector is not some amorphous blob that you call to attention. They are not some certain set of people that you can rally to a cause. No sir they are in fact the local boys and girls sitting on the wall waiting to be moulded and waiting to be shown the way.

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GCT to go down, white rum prices going up

Mr Holness will have no time to dilly-dally