Dear Editor,

The Jamaican economy is currently supported by four main pillars: tourism,bauxite, agriculture and remittances.

Tourism, although an excellent earner of foreign exchange, is very fickle and should be regarded as the icing on the economy and not be depended on for life support.

The bauxite industry has had serious setbacks and is now only operating at 3/5th of its potential. It seems the other 2/5th is being held to ransom by UC Rusal, the Russian company.

Agriculture is a shadow of what it should be as we cannot feed ourselves or our livestock.

Remittances should also be regarded as gravy, as it is not dependent on the output of the local population.

That said, it is evident that much needs to be done to shore up the foundations of this economy and also add more pillars to support the load; for example, a petroleum industry. The government needs to look urgently at encouraging oil exploration along with the utilisation of idle arable land.

A Bryan

Mandeville, Manchester

abryan67@gmail.com