Business leaders say PM must outline rescue plan today

Some key sector leaders are urging Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller to use her address at today’s public session of the Peoples National Party (PNP) annual conference to outline a plan to resuscitate the country’s economy.

With an International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme still in limbo, four of the eight sector leaders canvassed by The Gleaner-Power 106 News Centre said Simpson Miller needs to provide specifics on a rescue plan.

President of the Jamaica Bankers’ Association (JBA) Bruce Bowen says the government must lay out a realistic medium term economic plan that will place the country on a path to long term sustainable growth.

This, he warns, will require tough decisions and some pain over the short term, but adds that there is no other way to improve the welfare of the average Jamaican in the long term.

President of the Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica (PSOJ) Christopher Zacca says Simpson Miller should use today’s speech to address the tough issues that confront the country.