GORDON ‘Butch’ Stewart, chairman of the Sandals/ATL Group, has cautioned that without greater dialogue between the private sector, the opposition and the government, Jamaica had no where going as a country.

Stewart urged the Portia Simpson Miller administration to involve the business community and the opposition in all major decision-making for the good of the country.

Repeating his call for a business-friendly government, he noted that there were governments which did not like to see business develop “because they consider the private sector having strong businesses as taking power and control out of their hands”.

“It’s imperative that if Jamaicans are to move forward. we have to foster dialogue between the private sector and the government, proper planning between both the government and the opposition – whoever that might be – and the private sector, because without it, we have no where going,” said Stewart, who is also chairman of the Jamaica Observer.

His comments came at a luncheon he hosted last week for nominees of the prestigious Business Observer Business Leader Awards, at the Observer’s Beechwood Avenue offices in Kingston. The awards will be presented on May 2, 2007.

Stewart said it was more and more critical for the government to be friendly towards business, doing the things that were going to help business for the good of the country.

“There are a lot of governments throughout the world that don’t like to see business develop because their philosophies are counter to the development of the private sector. A lot of governments don’t like to see that because they consider private sector having strong businesses taking power and control out of their hands,” he said.

Suggesting that “nothing could be further from the truth”, Stewart said: “Good governments develop good businesses and that in turn helps them to develop quality political direction and better quality governments…”

But he noted that were also many administrations that made decisions without bringing the private sector into the discussion “and then you wonder why you have skewed policies, faulty policies and policies that work against the interest of the country”.

“We have set records in this part of the world in going around in circles, we have set records on borrowing money and can’t find it. We have set records in spending hard-earned or borrowed capital and squandered it, and it is about time that the people in the country understand, first and foremost, the need for being business-friendly.

Stewart acknowledged the need for proper regulation of business operations, but insisted that that should not militate against the government incorporating the business community in all major decision-making.