Often at the end of a year the annual ritual for most individuals is to pause and reflect on what was, keeping things that worked in their lives, and discarding those that didn’t. For them, the active intention for self-evaluation and personal renewal takes the form of a list of new year’s resolutions with all the things they want to achieve in the new calendar year.

Businesses do it too. Owners, directors, and senior management come together to discuss, assess, and plan for the new year. If there is a new strategy and focus they are communicated to the staff from the get-go so that everyone is on the same page moving in the same direction for success.

The world is a highly different place today, but we are still thinking small as a nation, stuck in the 1950’s trade policy mindset. When will we be confident to take the risk and produce for 15, 20, 25, 30 million people, versus three million? Our responsibility as policymakers is to create the economic climate and mindset that will grow the Jamaican economy in a way that increases per capita income for all our citizens.

We have repeated, for decades, that our national trade policy is export-driven, and this position was reiterated in a 2019 policy document: “At the national level, Jamaica’s trade policy can be said to be always export-led, even when the country introduced an import substitution policy in the 1950s…” (National Trade Policy 2019, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade)

This is a policy in name only, because, in reality, we have nothing to show for it that did not exist 50 years ago. Let’s be honest, we have a protectionist market mindset which has caused us to be a producer of samples for export. We have not focused enough on building our proactive approaches in international trade as we consistently import four times more than we export.

For example, Jamaica started producing rum in 1749 and, almost 300 years later, it’s still our primary manufacturing export.

In 2019 it represented 79 per cent of our manufacturing export earnings (Planning Institute of Jamaica, 2019). Our largest producer and exporter of rum used to be Jamaican-owned. No longer. So the profits are also exported.

Our total imports of approximately US$6.4 billion was four times larger than our exports, approximately US$1.6 billion. Guess which industries still account for our traditional domestic export earnings — rum, alumina & bauxite, sugar, banana, coffee, mining & quarrying. They’ve remained the same for decades.

As a result, the Jamaican economy has seen only anaemic growth, and per capita income has grown only marginally in real terms while that of other countries has grown. Few if any countries in the world have ever created true wealth for their people without developing their exports in both goods and services.

A closer look at the data for 2019 reveals Jamaica was lagging behind other countries in the region for exports of goods and services per capita. Trinidad and Tobago, with a population of 1.39 million, exported US$9.1 billion with a per capita figure of US$6,547. Jamaica, with twice the population, exported US$1.5 billion with a per capita figure of US$535. The data of others blessed with less natural resources and agricultural output still beat us. For example: Cayman, US$24,296; The Bahamas, US$3,660; Barbados, US$1,547; and Panama, US$1,317.

In a world of free trade, we must establish specialised niche markets. The countries that have created true wealth for their people are the ones that have developed their exports in both goods and services. Jamaica will never create true wealth for our three million people by just selling to our three million people. Our market is too small.

Other countries have done it in less time than I have been a Member of Parliament. They’ve increased their people’s wealth by 100 per cent within a 10-year period. Here are just a few examples: The United Arab Emirates (with non-oil exports), Vietnam, Panama, Ghana, Columbia, and the Dominican Republic. I could list several more, but the point is that Jamaica is underperforming based on the value of our brand in the world, the strategic location of our island, our great soil and agricultural flavour, the immense potency of our culture and music, our solid financial infrastructure, the beauty of our island, but most importantly the inherent talent of our people.

I’m not interested in blaming anyone; that’s so 1992, it’s now 2022, and it’s time we focus jointly on the future. This means that the Government, the Opposition, and the Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica need to urgently get together to build our exports in goods and services with the potential to make Jamaica and Jamaicans wealthy. These discussions must lead to agreements for achieving a fundamental mindset shift to structurally transform Jamaica’s economy into an internationally competitive value-added export country focusing on products and services in which we can identify a global competitive advantage.

Last year I presented several solutions in Parliament and in my articles towards achieving some of these objectives. Let me repeat only three here in the hope that in 2022 we can get a change of mindset to think differently, to think big, and to think of the future world, rather than to be stuck in the gap we have been in for years. By just implementing these three with focus we could transform Jamaica for our children.

1) Value-added agriculture

There are over 200,000 farmers in Jamaica, representing the largest source of employment. Logically, if we improve the incomes of our farmers we’ll improve their purchasing power which, in turn, drives growth in our entire economy. Our goal should be to improve the standard of living for our small farmers and, through their linkages with other sectors, increase employment and income in all sectors of the economy.

Moving forward, we should be laser-focused and provide support to agricultural products which have export markets and value-added potential; our pepper, ginger, cocoa, coffee, ackee, papaya, romaine lettuce, avocados, organic beef could give us the best global competitive advantage because of our unique Jamaican taste profile.

2) National ganja lab

The global ganja/cannabis market is expected to reach US$97.3 billion by 2026. Let us build the Jamaica National Ganja Lab in partnership with one of our universities responsible for promoting Jamaican ganja as the best in the world, while driving the scientific research for cannabis and facilitating Jamaican nutraceutical products for export. This lab would allow small farmers to manufacture and process their raw weed for a fee into value-added products that the world wants.

3) Jamaica as a performance stage

In 2007, the total value-added by copyright-based industries (literature, music, theatre, film, the media, photography, software, visual arts, advertising services) accounted for US$192 billion in exports from the United States of America. By 2017 copyright exports had exceeded US$2.2 trillion. The contribution of arts and culture to the USA’s gross domestic product (GDP) is valued at US$804 billion, surpassing construction, transportation, warehousing, travel and tourism, mining and extraction, agriculture, forestry, and fishing (US Bureau of Economic Analysis 2016). This represents a per capita revenue of US$2,436 per person, which, based on Jamaica’s population, would be US$7.3 billion.

Let us set our target on one-tenth of the USA’s per capita revenue. In other words, our culture as an industry would have a potential value of US$731 million. At the very minimum, the Ministry of Culture should be allocated two per cent of this value per annum; that is, US$14.6 million for the development of the creative industries. A review of the 2021-2022 Jamaican budget reveals $178.4 million (US$1.23 million) for the development and promotion of this area, one-tenth of the allocation that it needs to be effective and realise the benefits.

We need an urgent plan to structurally transform Jamaica’s economy into an internationally competitive value-added export country focusing on products and services to identify a global competitive advantage, controlling all the inputs in our value chain from raw materials to finished goods. If we don’t, the rest of the world will continue to imitate us without flattery, royalties, or economic benefit to our people.

Thanks to everyone who read the column this year and gave feedback. I wish you a safe and productive 2022. See you again in February

Lisa Hanna is Member of Parliament for St Ann South Eastern, People’s National Party spokesperson on foreign affairs and foreign trade, and a former Cabinet member.