JAMAICAN corporate executives yesterday slammed the Government for not doing enough to foster local private sector investment, and urged the administration to use the regulatory framework of neighbouring Turks and Caicos Islands as a reference in enhancing economic activity here.,/B>

At a luncheon hosted by Observer chairman Gordon ‘Butch’ Stewart at the company’s Beechwood Avenue headquarters in Kingston, which was attended by Turks and Caicos Premier Michael Misick, local executives used the platform to aggressively vent their frustrations at the Jamaican Government which, they said, has failed to nurture a fruitful business environment.

“There is a genuine belief of freedom of business for people in the Turks and Caicos,” said Gassan Azan, CEO of MegaMart. “(In Jamaica) the Government is coming from a very socialist background from the 1970s. It appears as if they are liberalising, but business people have told me that they feel the socialist crunch.”

Under Misick, who also holds the planning, tourism, development, and district administration portfolios, the 30-island British dependency of 32,000 people has managed to achieve per capita income of US$12,500, negligible unemployment and real GDP growth of 4.9 per cent. The Turks and Caicos administration has also been able to keep inflation below four per cent.

Misick, in addressing the Jamaican business executives, said the key to his country’s success has been its ability to create an environment conducive to private sector involvement.

“What separates governments is the ability to create an environment for growth,” said Misick, who added that there was a 50 per cent discount on Crown land for citizens in the Turks and Caicos.

“We consider ourselves a small country with a big vision. we believe that the government should create the regulatory framework (for a country) and the private sector let it flourish,” he added.

Stewart, whose Sandals hotel chain extends to Turks and Caicos, has first-hand experience of that country’s effort to stimulate its domestic business environment.

He said yesterday that the Jamaican Government’s lack of assertiveness in coming up with a plan to stimulate the business environment in his homeland was the reason for the current state of economic stagnation that has seen the country grow by less than three per cent over the last 15 years.

“If you go somewhere like the Turks and Caicos, it is the islanders that the government reaches out to more to offer investments,” said Stewart. “Only an idiot will live in Jamaica and believe that everything is fine…the level of suffering out here is unbelievable. The numbers don’t lie. When you have a per capita income out here of US$4,000, the fact of the matter is that things have to be done.”

Azan said the Jamaican Government seemed to be more accommodating to overseas investors rather than locals, as opposed to the local investor-friendly schemes in countries such as the Turks and Caicos and the Bahamas.

“In the Bahamas (for example), in my industry, the truth of the matter is that you have to engage with a local partner (when you are an overseas investor),” said Azan. “In Jamaica, it tends to be the opposite. It is pretty much a free for all here.”

William McConnell, managing director of J Wray & Nephew, in support of Azan, pointed to the Jamaican Government’s grant of a tax holiday to Diageo – owner of Red Stripe – six years ago.

In 2001, Red Stripe secured a $2-billion profit tax break from the Government, which took effect on July 1 and ended on June 30, 2006. The tax holiday was granted to facilitate a major investment being undertaken by the firm at its Spanish Town Road plant, aimed at helping the beer and stout manufacturer increase its export competitiveness and brace for potential competition in the local market.

However, McConnell said that his company has a similar export/investment structure to Red Stripe, but didn’t receive a similar gesture from the Jamaican Government.

“The Ministry of Finance approved for Diageo an income tax regime for a period of five years. I congratulated the minister for his enlightened views and said to him that the business that I run is also in export and we have also been investing billions of dollars.

“Do you think that you can extend those privileges to us? I asked the minister,” added McConnell. “Six years later, we are still waiting.”