Deputy Opposition Spokesman on Productivity, Efficiency and Competitiveness, Senator Cleveland Tomlinson has outlined an alternative economic development strategy that he argues Jamaica should pursue to ensure real and sustained growth.

The Opposition senator offered the alternative after outlining what he said were weaknesses in the model currently being pursued by the Government. He was speaking in the Senate on Friday during his first contribution to the State of the Nation Debate.

“We must begin by asking what Jamaica should be capable of producing, developing and exporting in the years ahead. That requires us to identify the industries in which we have the potential to compete, establish a more coherent role for the state in supporting their development, and make the investments in our people, institutions and businesses that will enable us to succeed,” said Tomlinson.

For starters, Tomlinson wants the government to identify and develop higher-value economic activities in the industries Jamaica can compete in. One such area is what he called climate resilience and disaster management. He pointed out that Jamaica’s vulnerability to hurricanes and other climate-related hazards has imposed enormous costs on the country, noting that, “Our experience, including the difficult lessons arising from recent disasters, presents an economic opportunity which we have not sufficiently explored”.

Highlighting that small island developing states across the world confront many of the same challenges that Jamaica faces, Tomlinson told the Parliament that they require expertise in resilient construction, coastal management, environmental planning, disaster-risk assessment, and post-disaster reconstruction.

“I believe Jamaica should explore the establishment of a specialised technical services enterprise, drawing on the expertise available within our universities, the engineering and architectural professions, and the institutions involved in national reconstruction and resilience planning.

“Such an enterprise could develop and export services to other countries confronting similar climate-related challenges, while helping to strengthen our own domestic capacity,” he explained.

Tomlinson said this would require serious institutional preparation and the development of internationally competitive professional capabilities. “Nevertheless, it illustrates how Jamaica could begin to transform some of the practical experience acquired through our vulnerabilities into expertise of wider economic value”.

Tomlinson expressed that environmental management and climate resilience must be recognised as important components of economic development policy, rather than treated solely as matters of environmental protection.

He also told the Parliament that there were substantial opportunities within the agriculture and agro-industry, with Jamaica possessing products with established international reputations, including coffee, ginger, pimento, cocoa and pepper. “Yet our economic returns from these products have too often been constrained by limited processing capacity, inconsistent production, weaknesses in quality assurance and insufficient development of higher-value products”.

“We must place greater emphasis on developing specialised agro-industrial products that command premium prices in international markets. This could include innovative food and beverage products, extracts, speciality ingredients and other forms of value-added processing,” said Tomlinson.

He told his fellow lawmakers that achieving this will require investment in agricultural research, modern production techniques, cold-chain infrastructure, product development and market intelligence. “We must also learn from the difficulties encountered by previous agro-processing ventures, so that new initiatives are informed by a serious understanding of the commercial and operational challenges involved,” he said. He insisted that farmers should have greater opportunities to participate in enterprises that earn more from the products they cultivate, rather than remaining confined to the least remunerative stages of the value chain.

He also singled out the creative industries as an area that can lead to sustained economic growth, noting that, “Our country has achieved an extraordinary international cultural presence, particularly through music. Yet the economic value generated by Jamaican creativity is not always captured within Jamaica to the extent that it could be”.

“We must develop stronger capabilities in music production, sound engineering, digital distribution, intellectual property management and the wider commercial activities associated with creative products,” said Tomlinson. He argued that the international reputation of Jamaican culture is an asset, “so we must convert that reputation into sustained economic value”. This, he said will require investment in the technical, managerial and commercial capabilities that support the industry.

On the matter of tourism, Tomlinson said greater effort should be made to have more of the tourism dollar remain in Jamaica.

“For decades, much of our discussion has focused on attracting additional visitors, expanding hotel capacity and increasing tourism earnings. Those objectives remain important, but we should be equally concerned with the value that Jamaican workers and businesses capture from the industry. Most of the profits from tourism does not stay in the country,” he remarked.

Tomlinson argued that there are opportunities to expand the range of goods and services supplied locally to hotels and other tourism enterprises, while developing specialised professional services in areas such as resort design, architecture, engineering, environmental management and hospitality technology.

“Our experience in developing and operating tourism facilities could itself become a source of internationally marketable expertise. With appropriate investment in training and business development, Jamaican professionals and firms could increasingly provide these services to other tourism destinations,” he noted. He also called for greater emphasis to be placed on community and rural tourism, ensuring that more Jamaicans, including those outside the traditional resort areas, the middle class, the entrepreneurial class, can participate meaningfully in the economic opportunities created by the industry.

Tomlinson lamented that, “This will not happen if the Jamaica Tourist Board only pays advertisements for big hotels, or the money from the Tourism Enhancement Fund and the Tourism Product Development Company only flows to major operators in the industry. It must also flow to the people”.

The Opposition senator said identifying these opportunities is only the beginning, with the government expected to play a strategic and coordinating role.

He said the State must be capable of identifying strategic national priorities, coordinating the institutions responsible for supporting them and making the investments in infrastructure, education, research and other public goods that individual businesses cannot reasonably be expected to undertake on their own.

“It must also work more closely with the private sector to identify constraints, facilitate innovation and support the development of new economic activities and industries in which Jamaica has credible opportunities to compete,” he said.

-Lynford Simpson