The following is an edited version of remarks by Prime Minister PJ Patterson at the closing of the government-private sector retreat, at the Ritz Carlton Rose Hall Hotel, Montego Bay, earlier this month:

WE have conducted this meeting on the basis of accepting that the needs and potential of corporate Jamaica can only be realised through a shared vision that involves all the stakeholders — the government, the private sector, labour and civil society.

This meeting is not an end. It is the beginning of a process as we seek to build a broad national consensus with an emphasis on creating jobs, attracting more investments and stimulating sustained economic growth.

During the meetings, the exchanges have allowed us to reach a broad and substantial level of accord on the essential ingredients which must constitute the partnership between the government and the private sector. But we have done so fully cognisant that some of the issues which we address will require further consultations and the engagement of other social partners as well.

We leave this meeting reaffirming our acceptance that our role as a government is to create the enabling environment that is conducive to growth, to stimulate investment and to spur job creation. It is the wish of us all that we will contribute in whatever ways we can to fostering a social climate where law and order prevail, where crime and violence do not exceed tolerable levels, where there is an adequate feeling of security for visitors and residents alike, where praedial larceny is a thing of the past and farmers can reap what they have planted.

As leader of the government, I want to welcome the endorsement of the private sector in a number of areas which were already accepted by the Cabinet at our retreat but where we will need the support of the private sector and other social partners in realising those objectives.

We have to reduce the size of the fiscal deficit. We have to contain the proportion of budgetary allocation that is devoted to wages and allowances. We have to widen the tax net and we have to have a more efficient system of revenue collection.

We have to cap the size of the public debt in real terms as a percentage of our gross domestic product. We have to work to eliminate corruption wherever it exists in the public domain and in the private domain. Integrity has to be a hallmark of the Jamaican society. We have to ensure greater levels of constant public accountability.

We are agreed that science and technology are critical to our future development, particularly for us as we seek to take our part in a global knowledge-based society and to this end the meeting has accepted that the next meeting of the National Commission on Science and Technology in June will be a very special one, where we will be discussing with the private sector how the economy can benefit by a greater involvement in science and technology.

We also feel that in an energy-deficient country, but where we are high consumers of imported energy, we must not only have an updated and relevant energy policy, but at the same time we have to find a way of discouraging wasteful energy consumption.

I don’t think we could have been expected in these deliberations to announce a package of projects and investments that will flow immediately. What we have done is to identify the areas that offer the best possibility of contributing to growth in the medium term and seeking to concentrate on them, and we have concluded that tourism, because of its tremendous linkages with other sectors of the economy, must be a main catalyst for growth at this time. We have to expand on the product by creating new attractions and we have to continue to build the requisite infrastructure. We have identified the possibility of a home port for cruise shipping as being one that offers a very exciting possibility.

We were also able to hear from people engaged in the entertainment sector who have left us in no doubt whatsoever that the field of entertainment and sports is one which we can explore with very considerable advantages.

There are some items that will require ongoing work not only with the other social partners, but within the private sector itself and between the private sector and relevant agencies of government. And as the chairman of the PSOJ has indicated, we are setting up an umbrella group which I myself will lead to ensure that there is the proper coordination and timely implementation of action, in respect of the decisions we have taken.

I have also indicated that we are going to be including on the Development Council, over which I preside, representatives from the private sector. That will help us to ensure that we not only deal with government projects, but that we also deal with private sector initiatives and there is a constant flow of communication as to what we need to do re incentives in terms of reducing the bureaucracy and, very important, of expediting decision-making. We have to recognise that time is money and a lost opportunity is never fully regained.

I was very pleased that we were able to look at the exciting possibilities which Highway 2000 will allow and while the construction is proceeding very much on time and in accordance with the budget, we can now begin to look at the possibilities in the vicinity of the Highway 2000 and the lands that will be made accessible by Highway 2000 in terms of industrial parks, in terms of tourism attractions and in terms of other construction activities that include residential accommodation.

This meeting is of the view that a great resource to be tapped must be our Jamaicans overseas having regard to their professionalism, the desire to encourage a mobilisation of savings by Jamaicans and by the Jamaicans abroad in Jamaica. And further to the decision to establish within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, a minister of state to concentrate on the Jamaican overseas community, the feeling of this meeting is that the private sector at all levels, including those in the areas of investment promotion, should seek to mobilise these groups to the maximum.

We leave this meeting having looked at our strengths and our opportunities. We have faced very squarely what are some of the weaknesses which exist, what are the obstacles which remain, how we can remove them, and we have looked at the situation not only internally but externally to see some of the threats which appear in the darkening clouds ahead, and we want to dissipate them as best we can so that our progress is not impeded.

I should like to express my thanks to the co-chairmen, to the facilitators, to the organisers who have made these arrangements proceed so smoothly, but more so to all the participants for the spirit in which we have conducted these exchanges. I would say that, in addition to what has formally been discussed within these precincts, we have also had the opportunity of a number of personal interchanges to identify prospects for investments, which I hope will soon be realised.

To copyright a famous statement, we have reached the stage where what is in the pipeline must be got out of the pipeline so that new things can come into the pipeline and jobs, investments and growth can continue to flow.

I would like this meeting in Montego Bay to be the source of activities of new enterprises, of expansion, of job creation all over Jamaica so that what we will be hearing very soon is “Nuff tings a gwaan”, and if we can do so, we will have justified the time we have spent here during these three days and history will recall that it was good of us to have been here.