In the Senate last Friday, Mr Aubyn Hill told the nation something we’ve heard many times before from many experts, local and foreign, over the years: “Jamaica is not going to get rich selling to three million people who are relatively poor.”

Senator Hill, the minister of industry, investment and commerce, might not be the original author of that statement, but he has reminded us that this truism, while not new, is timely, sober, and urgent. It is something that we lose sight of at our own peril.

“For us Jamaicans to realise the economic independence that we deserve, we must make products, craft, and services that can sell around the world,” he said, as he stressed something we all know but might have forgotten — that more focus must be placed on exports if Jamaica is to achieve economic independence.

For a country such as Jamaica, that is familiar with the refrain “Export or die”, Senator Hill should not at this time be fretting about our lack of focus on export. Rather, he should have been in a position to be announcing new markets that he and his team have unearthed.

However, the figures expose a stark reality. Last year, Jamaica imported goods and services valued at US$5.975 billion and exported US$1.441 billion — a gap of US$4.5 billion or almost one-fifth. This is cause for serious worry.

And the trend is continuing, based on Statistical Institute of Jamaica numbers which show that, for the period January to June this year, Jamaica imported more than US$3.75 billion worth of goods and exported only US$801 million.

Put in layman’s language, Jamaicans are living above our means, or consuming more than we are producing, as we have clearly been hanging our basket where we cannot reach it. To afford this, we will be forced to continue borrowing. The question we must therefore ask is how will we ever be able to get out of the debt trap?

We agree with Mr Hill that small size is not a deterrent. He noted that the five richest countries are relatively small, but they are serious about exports. Jamaica has demonstrated that it can be number one in several areas.

For example, we have the world’s best coffee; ginger; pimento; we have on numerous occasions topped the Monde Selection with our rum and liqueur; we have given the world reggae music from which came the century’s top song and album; and we have the globe’s fastest runners, including the fastest man alive. Did we mention the world-renowned ganja?

We imagine that Jamaica should be able to ramp up exports of all our products and services which have already proven their attractiveness to the global marketplace. That would be in addition to new products that could come on stream, given our boundless creativity.

Additionally, with our small market, Jamaica must continue to build relations with our Caribbean partners in Caricom which converts our population of three million to 19 million. Then we have the Caribbean Diaspora, which is probably just as many.

We are happy to note the minister’s disclosure that he has established an expert team to gather industry data to help design and implement a broader plan of action as the Government seeks to strengthen the country’s export sector.

That, too, minister, must not be another plan which will never materialise.