So far, so good. Prime Minister Dr Andrew Holness has taken the first step in fulfilling his promise to cut bureaucracy. But as we pointed out in this space last November after Mr Holness signalled his intention in a policy address, we won’t start doing cartwheels until we actually see this policy working like a well-oiled machine.

Our hesitance to give full applause is grounded in knowledge that for decades successive governments have talked about reducing State bureaucracy, but their words have not borne fruit.

In the current instance, Prime Minister Holness has told us that by the end of next month what he has labelled a Speed Task Force will start working on making it easier for Jamaicans and other investors to do business here.

This Speed Task Force, he said, will tackle inefficiencies in government systems head-on by identifying bottlenecks, streamlining processes, and delivering practical solutions within defined timelines.

According to Mr Holness, this task force, which will comprise either a single team or a rotating group of focused individuals on specific areas, will ensure Jamaica’s business environment meets world-class standards in order to accelerate economic growth.

The importance of getting this done cannot be overstated for, as we pointed out in these columns last November, bureaucratic red tape has been like a millstone around the neck of this country for decades.

The 2016-2017 Global Competitiveness Report published by the World Economic Forum reminded us of this reality as it showed inefficient Government bureaucracy as the second most problematic factor for doing business in Jamaica. The first was crime and theft.

A perfect example of the time-consuming, energy-sapping nature of State bureaucracy emerged in Mr Matthew Lyn’s presentation at the launch of Caribbean Broilers’s $15-billion air-chill poultry processing plant in Hill Run, St Catherine, on January 15, 2025.

Mr Lyn, the group CEO of Caribbean Broilers, told his audience, including the prime minister, that what he and his team thought would have taken two-plus years to complete, actually took close to six.

“The first two years were spent securing the necessary permits. This wasn’t a housing scheme, office building, shopping plaza, gas station, or even just one factory. This was, 450,000 square feet of building, three kilometres of internal roads, a power plant, steam plant, a water treatment plant and… an air-chill chicken plant, which no one in Jamaica had ever heard of before,” Mr Lyn said.

We acknowledge and accept that projects of this magnitude require careful planning and approvals, however, when investments are delayed by a string of meetings, as Mr Lyn told us, “site visits, studies, reports, submission of applications, submission of drawings, submission of plans, followed by resubmission of the submissions”, we are only shooting ourselves in the foot.

What emerged from this experience is that Mr Lyn and his team at Caribbean Broilers have an abiding faith in Jamaica and are determined to continue contributing to the country’s development.

His statement: “We were bruised, but not broken,” is a declaration of the true Jamaican spirit of refusing to yield in the face of adversity.

Any Government that implements policies designed to encourage that spirit and actually ensures that those policies work will not only earn our applause, they will receive a standing ovation.