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TRANSFORMATIVE, STRATEGIC investments
that have a multiplier effect on competitiveness
continue. The largest power plant facility ever
constructed in Jamaica is expected to break ground
on the south coast this year. Energy diversification is
a reality with last summer’s launch of commercial
operations of Jamaica’s first utility-scale solar plant,
and the commissioning of the largest private wind
farm, along with the October commencement of
previously elusive LNG supply. This trend is set to
continue as Jamaica’s largest solar plant is expected
to be operational next year.
Production at the Alpart facilities is anticipated to
return to levels not attained in nearly 10 years with
the commencement of mining operations in the short
term, and various confirmed resort and hospitality
investments are expected to add at least 7,000
additional hotel rooms over the medium term.
FAVOURABLE ECONOMIC CLIMATE
Increased demand, higher levels of employment,
greater incentives for work, record levels of business
and consumer confidence, large investments across
multiple sectors, SME vibrancy and the gradual
removal of supply-side constraints together conspire to
create the most favourable atmosphere for sustained
expansion of the economy in a quarter-century.
Risks remain and vulnerabilities exist. However,
all things considered, this represents the best chance
in a generation.
Ambassador Dr Nigel Clarke is deputy
chairman of the Economic Growth Council,
chairman of the board of directors of the
National Housing Trust and the Port Authority
of Jamaica, and deputy chairman of the
Musson Group.
Partnerships have been renewed, deepened
and broadened in the form of a triumvirate of
public-private monitoring bodies, the Economic
Growth Council (EGC), Economic Programme
Oversight Committee (EPOC) and Public Sector
Transformation Oversight Committee (PSTOC),
with differentiated focus, and the social umbrella
Partnership for a Prosperous Jamaica. Wide EGC
consultation has led to the public adoption by the
Government of policies that bring reinvigorated
focus to the task of reducing supply-side
bottlenecks such as limited access to finance, a
densely bureaucratic business environment, and
lack of citizen security.
Meaningful progress has been made in the
process of rebalancing revenues from direct to
indirect sources, enhancing efficiency while
providing greater incentive to work. Conditional
cash transfers, school feeding and other forms of
poverty relief will receive increases in allocation
larger than the cumulative increases of the last five
years combined. In addition, policy to improve
financial inclusion, by bringing financial services
and access to the unbanked, is being implemented.
The National Housing Trust housing starts
over the next two years are
anticipated to be almost triple the number of
starts over any consecutive two-year period since
the turn of the century, perhaps longer, adding
construction momentum to growth and job
creation prospects. Planning and construction of
privately and publicly financed business process
outsourcing facilities now exceeds that of any
previous period. As a result, job opportunities
are expected to materially scale, given the
buoyant tenancy forecasts.
Meanwhile, the engine of growth is being shifted
from the public to the private sector. Investments in
productive capacity being made by the local
and regional private sectors
are of a pace and
nature not seen in decades. The availability of
credit support for small and medium-sized
businesses, through the Development Bank, has
increased. Pursuit of growth enhancing efficiencies
in the public sector through a process that shares
services where there are replications, merges
entities where there are duplications and divests
where there is the potential for greater utilisation
has gathered impetus.
Greater utilisation of assets that galvanises
investment, catalyses expansion and creates jobs
has found expression in the completion of the
divestments of the Kingston Container Terminal
and Caymanas Track Limited, the restart of the
divestment process for the Norman Manley
International Airport, and the announced sale of
the Government’s remaining shares in the
Jamaica Public Service Company to the
Jamaican public. It is expected
that this policy direction
will gather
momentum.
•
www.jamaica-gleaner.com• gleanerjamaica • jamaicagleaner •
FEATURE
THE GLEANER, THURSDAY, MARCH 2, 2017
E10
E
VERYADMINISTRATION and every
government has, whether explicitly
expressed or implicitly, assumed a set
of core organising principles from which
everything else by proximity derives value.
For this Government, a central organising
principle, as articulated by the prime
minister, is the focused pursuit of economic
growth and job creation.
Expansion of economic opportunity is a
necessary standard around which to organise
and prioritise, especially at this time. After
two and a half decades of literal stagnation in
the real average income of Jamaicans, as
measured by real per capita GDP, and the
stifling of options for social mobility, factors
that favour economic expansion must inform
priorities, contextualise choices and frame
decision-making.
The first manifestation of such an outlook
is the acknowledgement and recognition that
the organising principle of shared economic
expansion is best served by a disposition
towards building on the collective
achievements of preceding periods, even
while charting new directions.
SHARED ECONOMIC EXPANSION
In this context, given the primordial
relationship of necessity, though not
sufficiency, between stability and growth,
maintenance of the former in pursuit of the
latter has been, and remains, a priority. As
such, of the choices available, the decision
was made to pre-empt potential speculation
and uncertainty about the medium term,
through an unexpected early negotiated
arrangement with the International Monetary
Fund ahead of the expiration of the then
existing facility. This affirmation of Jamaica’s
commitment to policy credibility and stability,
within an enlarged insurance envelope of
US$1.6 billion, was framed by reference to the
imperative of shared economic expansion.
Business and consumer confidence are
now at all-time highs, a cumulative
development, no doubt. Economic expansion
has continued for seven consecutive quarters,
the longest period of growth in a decade, and
the Statistical Institute of Jamaica reports that
the economy added approximately 35,000
jobs between October 2015 and October
2016. Furthermore, absolute employment is
at record levels. The size of the employed
labour force has never before been as large as
the levels reached in 2016.
... Renewed, deepened, broader partnership
... Private sector
takes rein of growth
Partnerships on large
projects facilitate efficiency
Nigel
Clarke
THE BEST CHANCE
IN A GENERATION
The engine of growth is being shifted from the public to the private
sector. Investments in productive capacity being made by the local and
regional private sectors are of a pace and nature not seen in decades.
The availability of credit support for small and medium-sized
businesses, through the Development Bank, has increased.
CONTRIBUTED
Prime Minister Andrew Holness posing with employees at one of the business process outsourcing centres providing jobs across the country.