HARVARD University Associate Professor Matt Andrews reckons that Jamaica won’t realise substantial growth if the government won’t move beyond forming committess to address economic challenges.

“Forming committees will not achieve missions. Committees just chat,” he said. “Growth requires vertical coordination focused on uncovering and solving problems, not just talking about the problems and writing new policies to fix them.”

The professor recommended that a super ministry be created around other major ministries that will act as a co-ordinating vehicle, focused on building relationships with internal and external bodies.

“This way, it can listen to what the country wants and then call back on the government and with that super authority, they can say we need some road and we need right here, right now,” he added.

Connectivity between the government agencies will eliminate the red tape often faced by individuals, private and public instititutions seeking business opportunities and development.

“Jamaica can achieve this by having a small set of people at the top and reshuffling persons from each ministry to oversee operations,” Andrews said. “All the authorisation will come through one body instead of multiple agencies.”

His speech came after an hour and a half-long presentation by various government ministries and agencies on how they plan to fuel the growth of the micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) during the Economic Growth through MSMEs Symposium at the Knutsford Court Hotel last Wednesday.

Andrews, along with Africa Programme Fellow at Havard University, Brad Cunningham, were invited to the symposium to address potential growth strategies for Jamaica’s economy.

“Currently, Jamaica is in food processing but big jump possibilities are in chemical, health-related products and petrochemical,” according to Cunningham. He added that a planned logistic hub is one way of achieving those possibilities.

He pointed to Singapore, which like Jamaica had less than US$1,000 exports per capita in 1970, but unlike Jamaica went from producing garments to electronics to chemicals.

“The transformation is about moving from low complexity products to high complexity products and having persons to effectively lead that charge,” said Cunningham.