By: Patrick Green
FT. LAUDERDALE – Against a backdrop of distressing economic figures, Jamaica’s Minister of Industry, Investment and Commerce Karl Samuda, presented a group of Jamaican businesses people in South Florida, with his government’s rescue strategies to “create jobs, grow the economy and provide security for the nation.”
Mr Samuda was the guest speaker at the 2nd annual Jamaica/USA Chamber of Commerce expo luncheon, at the Broward County Convention Center in South Florida yesterday (May 30).
Karl Samuda, Jamaica’s Minister of Industry, Investment and Commerce
(Greenp Images photo)
Managing 35 portfolios in 19 agencies, the minister said that his government inherited an economy with “significant advancement” that has been made over the years, including infrastructure and roads, but “the country has a burden that we have to carry, which puts us under tremendous stress and strain everyday.” This burden he pointed out is caused by:
– A debt to GDP ratio of 135%
– A domestic debt of 70%
– Use of sixty cents in every dollar earned to service debt
– Consumption imports of 60% to 70 %
– Balance of payment deficit of JA$1.8 billion
– Trade deficit of 4 billion US dollars
Looking at Jamaica’s heavy reliance on imported goods, the minister said that the diaspora’s assistance is crucial in helping the country with its foreign exchange demands and that the $1.6 billion sent home for the first ten months of the financial year, has kept the dollar at 71 to one instead of a possible100 to one. As a consequences of this assistance he said, the government is deliberate in its move to hold constructive dialogue with the diaspora where ever it can find them.
“The JLP spent 18 years trying to become the government and now that we are , we must confront the challenges in a dynamic way but the country cannot thrive unless all the parties come together as one united nation,” he stated.
To thunderous applause from the over 250 Jamaicans, Mr. Samuda said that “in the past we have continuously sought to govern through “one-up-manship” and trying to prove that we are better than the ones who have just lost the election.”
“We have always sought to find all the problems that went wrong instead of looking at the ones that were positives, build on them and then try to correct those that weren’t done properly.”
Engine for development
To this end the minister said that the government has identified the micro and small business sector as the key engine for the development of the people who have great ideas, no collateral and need to have a job.
The first strategic phase is to provide incubators with central services for training and organization for the participants to build solid foundations and acquire business skills.
The next phase will see the government taking the business to the communities where it will identify and prepare places where clusters can be established by groups in the inner-city.
Assistance will then be given through equipment lease purchase agreements, in which part of the lease purchase will take the form of grants. Persons will also get working capital with part being soft loans at 10% and the rest being grants. Loans will have a one year moratorium on payments.
Mr. Samuda also stated that “the administration is prepared to take the risk necessary, to move production and to get out of the way of the business person so that they can be profitable”.
“More profit means more employment, more taxes and growth for the economy,” he added.
Other investment strategies outlined by the minister are:
• Packaged factory locations which will include all the approvals needed by an investor to start a business
• An industrial park on 500 acres at Caymanas
• Expansion of the IT industry which will see the Montego Bay Freezone being packaged for sale
•Packaged sale of the Naggo Head Industrial Park
•Redevelopment of Port Royal as a cruise shipping port
The minister said that “these strategies provide excellent opportunities for the Jamaican Diaspora to invest in one the “best investment location in the world,” and encourage them to take a serious look at doing so”.
