CORPORATE executives yesterday slammed what they described as the government’s lack of assertiveness in implementing necessary measures needed for the country to achieve a path of respectable economic growth.

Crime, education and tax reform were among the confluence of factors that the executives urged the government to immediately address.

The concerns, raised at a luncheon hosted by Observer chairman Gordon “Butch” Stewart at the company’s Beechwood Avenue headquarters in Kingston, came against the country’s hostile business environment, with both bureaucratic and social issues acting as obstacles for entrepreneurs.

“Every island is doing very well except for Haiti and Jamaica,” said Stewart. “These are the only two islands that you can say in the Caribbean that is not doing well.”

Financial analyst, Dennis Chung, said that the countries’ poor education systems have put them at a disadvantage in a global economy where “knowledge’ is critical.

“Haiti and Jamaica have the lowest literacy rates (in the region) and the fact of the matter is that globalisation means knowledge, knowledge is really what drives products and services in a globalising economy,” Chung said. “You can have the best products and services in the world but if you don’t have the people to deliver that and deliver it on a competitive basis internationally, then you are going to have a problem.

“I think the government needs to pay attention more to education and crime rather than cricket,” Chung added, expressing disagreement with the government’s decision to invest US$105 million to host some of the activities of the ICC Cricket World Cup currently on in the region.

Michael Ammar, head of apparel retailers Ammar’s, agreed with Chung, and said that when the budget is renewed for the next fiscal year, the government should put more emphasis on education and crime – seen as a major obstacle to development.

“If the government were serious about growth, they would increase the budget for education and crime and be really serious about it,” Ammar told guests at yesterday’s luncheon.

Digicel Jamaica CEO, David Hall, though acknowledging the crippling implications of crime and education on the Jamaican economy, addressed the issue from a different angle. He said “the reality of the situation” is that the Jamaican Government has limited access to funds to address such issues, therefore the only way that these issues can be tackled is if the government fosters an environment which would create the funds to address them.

“Education is paramount to everything and the harsh reality is that if you don’t have a society that can earn money, crime is an alternative. People can (urge the government) to put money into this, put money into that etc, but the reality is that if you look at economies that have been in trouble for the past 30 years, what you have is countries that don’t have access to funds like that,” Hall said.

The Digicel boss suggested tax incentives to foster such an environment saying that a similar strategy was used in Ireland – his homeland – to combat similar problems faced by Jamaica today. He said the Irish government provided tax breaks for investments to boost sectors such as pharmaceuticals etc, a move which enhanced economic activity in that country and put them on a prosperous economic growth path.

“If you don’t have access to funds like that to be able to do those things, then what you should do is create an environment to be able to achieve that, and the way a lot of countries achieved that is through tax incentives” Hall said. “In Ireland, the incentives there were given to both local Irish people and also to foreigners.”

President of the Jamaica Chamber of Commerce (JCC), Mark Myers, agreed with Hall’s assessment. He said the government has been incompetent in coming up with innovative tax measures for economic growth.

“The problem is that here in Jamaica, there is no incentive for local investment,” said Myers. “The government absolutely has no vision and is unable to use tax as a growth tool.everything has to be revenue.”

William Mahfood, managing director of manufacturing and distribution company Wisynco, said that a simple reference for the government should be the substantial growth of the wine and spirit industry that was buoyed by the implementation of a lower duty regime in 2005.

“A year and a half ago, the government agreed to reduce the duties on wines and spirits,” he said. “I can bet that the revenues are proportionally more now. That is the clear example of opening up.”