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GOING FOR GROWTH FEATURE
| THURSDAY, MAY 7, 2015
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T IS a work in progress and Finance Minister Dr Peter Phillips is the
first to admit this, but he is confident that strong building blocks
have been laid for economic growth and he has clear ideas of
what he wants to achieve.
“I expect that if a child is in fourth form now, based on what we
are doing in the BPO (business processing outsourcing) sector, in
the agricultural sector, in tourism, in the energy sector; that
youngster, when he comes out of school, will have a job to go
to, certainly with a greater probability of employment than is
the case now,” Phillips told
The Gleaner
as he explained his
growth vision.
The finance ministry has projected economic growth of 1.6
per cent this year with the rate increasing annually over the
next five years.
However, in a country, which has been starved of meaning-
ful growth for decades, persons have been calling for measures
to speed up the process. This is a desire that Phillips shares
even as he accepts the reality that other variables have to be
FILE
Hyatt Ziva’s director of sales, Mureen James, shows
Finance Minister Dr Peter Phillips (centre), and Dr
Wykeham McNeill, minister of tourism and entertain-
ment, drawings of the two resorts – Hyatt Ziva and
Hyatt Zilara – which are to open early December.
Finance minister confident that strong
foundations for growth have been laid
Minister of Finance
and Planning Peter
Phillips
PHILLIPS’ PLAN
TAKES SHAPE
‘GETTING THE ECONOMIC FUNDAMENTALS RIGHT AND
GROWTH ARE NOT MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVE’ – PHILLIPS
in place in a small, open economy like
Jamaica.
“Establishing effective foundations
for sustained economic growth involves
a longer-term solution and a much
more comprehensive set of reforms
than is implied in much of the current
public debate,” said Phillips.
He is adamant that recent develop-
ments and measures being implemented
to ensure that the country’s economic
fundamentals are on the right path will
guarantee the level of growth every
Jamaican dreams of.
“Getting the economic fundamentals
right and growth are not mutually
exclusive,” declared Phillips. “I would
say they are mutually reinforcing in the
medium and longer term.”
The finance minister pointed out
that the administration has done some
basic things, such as establishing a
Growth Secretariat which is working
with the Port Authority, the Develop-
ment Bank of Jamaica, the PIOJ and
other ministries and agencies, to be
responsive to the growth needs.
“We have established a Cabinet sub-
committee to direct this Growth Secre-
tariat to help pull out the problems
that are there and to see ways in which
we can advance the growth efforts,”
added Phillips.
“Among the recent issues that came
before this committee that I would allude
to is a move to establish a five-year strate-
gic plan for the business processing out-
sourcing industry which will give a greater
level of employment for Jamaicans,
including graduates of the secondary
school system and tertiary level.”
BPO GROWTH
Phillips noted that the local BPO
industry has grown from about 11,000
employees to 17,000 plus in the past
three years or so. “But we can double
that in the next five years.
“A strategic objective is to move
Jamaica up in the value chain in the
outsourcing industry from simple call
centres up to knowledge-processing
centres, outsourcing more profession-
al services, such as legal and account-
ing support, software development
and technical support service,” said
Phillips.
With more and more investors being
attracted to Jamaica, Phillips said every
effort is being made to ensure that they
can enjoy a smooth start to doing busi-
ness locally.
He noted that a programme is in
place, led by JAMPRO, to create
“shovel ready” projects.
“They get the preliminary
approvals for areas such as environ-
ment and planning so that you can
go to the investor community and
say here is land that is adequate for
hotel development, or agriculture, or
BPO operations, or other industrial
operations.”
With inflation in the past fiscal
year the lowest in more than 40
years, Phillips is confident that the
foundations for growth have been
well and truly laid and is pleased that
so many Jamaicans are sharing his
view and are upbeat about the
prospects.