PRIME Minister Andrew Holness says he is committed to implementing any good ideas geared towards advancing the nation, regardless of whether they originated with the governing Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) or the Opposition People’s National Party (PNP).

Holness made the comment in obvious response to criticism from the Opposition that his Administration has been implementing plans and projects first advanced by the PNP.

“I notice that those who used to claim that nothing nah gwaan have changed their tune. Now they see nuff things a gwaan, like never before, and they are now falling over themselves to say ‘but it was my idea’. My job as prime minister is to improve the lives of Jamaicans, and I will implement any good idea or good project that does that. I do not care whether it originated with the PNP, JLP, no P, or PIP,” Holness said in his address at Tuesday’s ground-breaking and contract-signing ceremony for re-routing of the University Hospital of the West Indies ring road to facilitate the phased development of five medical towers on the hospital grounds at a cost of $278-million.

Pointing out that Jamaica has never been short of good ideas, Holness said there are several good plans from previous administrations which have been gathering dust for decades.

“I have the opportunity to look at a few of them sometimes, and I say, ‘Why didn’t they do these?’ My Administration, however, is doing it. We are getting the job done. We are taking the plans and implementing them,” he said.

The prime minister added that he welcomes new ideas but said that Government cannot only be about ideas.

“Governments have to be about ideas and execution, which is why there has to be this symbiosis between institutions like universities that do the research, generate the ideas, and you have your school of management which helps us to convert ideas into projects, and then you have the political bureaucracy that gets the stakeholders behind the project, and then you have the technocrats… who then take the plan and implement it and the Government overseas everything,” he explained.

According to Holness, the difference between his Government and previous ones is that his Administration manages the economy in such a way that they do not have to borrow more or increase taxes to foster the development of these ideas.

“With the greatest ideas and the greatest will… if you don’t have the budget you cannot execute,” Holness said, adding that it takes cash to care.

“We must have an economy that has the wherewithal to deliver, and we must make sure that the economy cares about the needs of the people. So that’s what we are doing now with this caring economy,” he said.

Last Thursday, following the ceremonial opening of Parliament, Finance Minister Dr Nigel Clarke tabled the Estimates of Expenditure in the House of Representatives showing a $1.3-trillion budget for fiscal year 2024/2025, an increase of approximately $230 billion, compared to 2023/2024.

According to Dr Clarke, the increased spend will be financed by revenue and grant receipts of $1 trillion, along with loans and other financial returns valued at $300 billion.