Governing in an economic emergency
The People's National Party (PNP) recognises that we have an economic emergency. At its conference last weekend, it made proposals to deal with it. It recognises that there is a job emergency; a production emergency; and an emergency of living standards and upward social mobility. It wants to be the government to deal with them.
There is an unemployment emergency. Almost 100,000 persons have lost their jobs over four years. There is a production emergency. Exports are down from US$2.8 billion in 2007 to US$1.3 billion last year. Foreign direct investment has collapsed from US$1.7 billion in 2007 to US$201 million last year. The emergency of living standards is indicated by the fact that poverty rates have doubled.
The PNP proposes a Jamaica Emergency Employment Programme (JEEP). It will be developed around six main areas: agroprocessing, cultural and creative industries, including sports; micro and small-business development; manufacturing; community transformation projects, and information and communications technology.
A range of financial instruments like small business loans, tax incentives and strategic tax exemptions would promote these sectors. There will be economic stimulus loans for which the financial institutions would receive tax incentives. There will be small-business loan guarantees. A tax exemption for new investments which create jobs will be provided, regardless of the sector of the economy. A five-year tax holiday will be given to all start-up businesses to encourage entrepreneurship. Small-business incubators would increase support to micro and small businesses. Funding for the National Export Strategy will be guaranteed.
If these incentives allow each business to add one job to the economy, it would mean a lot for employment, sales and tax revenue.
Economic task forces
At its private session of the conference, the party's New Foundation Group (NFG) introduced a resolution for the establishment of parish economic task forces. It is part of the party's constitution, the NFG argues, to secure prosperity for the people. The constitution mandates the party to work for and promote the political, economic, social and cultural progress of the country. The proposal also asks that special conferences on the economy and production be held by the party once every two years to guide policy.
This resolution is a resurrection of the idea of the People's Production Plan, formulated in 1976 when the country faced an oil crisis and production emergency. Out of that earlier initiative came an emergency production plan.
These task forces and a future government would have a lot to work with. Apart from the JEEP plan to consider, the PNP left a tourism master plan, plan to make Jamaica into a cultural superstate, Harmony Cove development plan, LNG energy plan, agricultural plan, education transformation plan, Falmouth cruise ship pier plan, Roaring River property development plan, sports development plan, and a plan for the Montego Bay Convention Centre. In addition, there is Robert Stephens' worthy Port Royal, Kingston and Spanish Town development plan.
In addition, Mrs Simpson Miller plans to hold a seminar on development soon. This seminar will flesh out much of what she talked about in her conference speech and add new ideas.
We need to prioritise production over consumption and exports over imports. Consumption is politically popular. It feeds the feel-good condition. But I hear that Jamaica, despite having one of the highest debts in the world, also has one of the highest consumption rates in the world. Most of what we consume is imported. We are among the greatest consumers, per capita, of cellphone credit, wigs, bleaching cream and SUVs. We have not been a productive society. We are a consumer society, and that is because we consume status. We have consumed ourselves into a crisis.
We should spend our money on production. When Portia Simpson Miller visited Brazil in 2006, she negotiated a US$100-million line of credit to finance the importation of machinery and agricultural equipment for harvesting sugar cane and for producing sugar, alcohol and ethanol. When P.J. Patterson entered the PetroCaribe agreement and upgraded Jamaica's relations with China (in 2004), he laid the basis for Jamaica to benefit from about US$1.5 billion in just these bilateral and multilateral loans alone.
Sometimes, though, we consume away this money rather than putting it to work for us. Our politicians are not all the problem. They bring in loans and we consume them in wigs and bleaching cream, in cellphone calls, and SUVs.
Emergency Political Plan
But our politicians are also a part of the problem, some more than others. The JLP, for example, is also in crisis. Its supporters have lost their jobs and are falling into poverty. The economy is bad for their business supporters and there is little investment to stimulate the different sectors. The middle class is experiencing a crisis of social mobility.
Rather than an economic emergency-production plan, the JLP seems more interested in an emergency political--election plan. At a time when we need an emergency production plan, the Government is spending more than US$300 million of a Chinese loan on road building. It should have divided up that loan to support the many productive plans that we have on the shelf gathering dust. They would contribute directly to production and growth. And, it should not be spending 75 per cent on JLP constituencies and 25 per cent on PNP constituencies. There is no production logic in that.
What could some of this money be invested in? The PNP announced the Audio Visual Intervention Scheme (AVIS) designed to reduce the cost of education. Shadow minister of education, Ronnie Thwaites, proposed a plan to use the broadcast media to present information from the curricula for students to listen to and to watch, thereby saving some book costs.
AVIS would also address social challenges like lifestyle choices and community development. Micro, small and medium-sized production houses would design and produce the educational programmes. Our actors, actresses, soundtrack developers, producers, graphic artists, technicians and other creative and cultural practitioners would be put to work. This would also facilitate the training of young people and recent graduates, who would be employed to the production teams.
The Chinese loan could also have been invested in providing more than one million square feet of office space for ICT businesses, as the PNP proposes. The PNP would use development funds from the PetroCaribe Fund. That fund would also allow Government to utilise its unused fibre-optic capacity to generate lower telecoms rates. The PNP says it will provide inexpensive broadband telecommunications to entrepreneurs who specialise in providing ICT jobs for the disabled. It will provide free broadband to businesses that employ persons with disabilities.
Our loans could also have been invested in agroprocessing. The fruits and vegetables we grow in Jamaica must not go to waste. We must put people to work to add value to them. We can dry them, candy them, can them, and use the by-products in many innovative ways.
In 2007, the Brazilian government agreed to assist in training and providing technical assistance in this area. The PNP would revisit this agreement. Jamaica can use its plants and herbs to create nutraceuticals and pharmaceuticals.
There is an unemployment emergency. Almost 100,000 persons have lost their jobs over four years. There is a production emergency. Exports are down from US$2.8 billion in 2007 to US$1.3 billion last year. Foreign direct investment has collapsed from US$1.7 billion in 2007 to US$201 million last year. The emergency of living standards is indicated by the fact that poverty rates have doubled.
The PNP proposes a Jamaica Emergency Employment Programme (JEEP). It will be developed around six main areas: agroprocessing, cultural and creative industries, including sports; micro and small-business development; manufacturing; community transformation projects, and information and communications technology.
A range of financial instruments like small business loans, tax incentives and strategic tax exemptions would promote these sectors. There will be economic stimulus loans for which the financial institutions would receive tax incentives. There will be small-business loan guarantees. A tax exemption for new investments which create jobs will be provided, regardless of the sector of the economy. A five-year tax holiday will be given to all start-up businesses to encourage entrepreneurship. Small-business incubators would increase support to micro and small businesses. Funding for the National Export Strategy will be guaranteed.
If these incentives allow each business to add one job to the economy, it would mean a lot for employment, sales and tax revenue.
Economic task forces
At its private session of the conference, the party's New Foundation Group (NFG) introduced a resolution for the establishment of parish economic task forces. It is part of the party's constitution, the NFG argues, to secure prosperity for the people. The constitution mandates the party to work for and promote the political, economic, social and cultural progress of the country. The proposal also asks that special conferences on the economy and production be held by the party once every two years to guide policy.
This resolution is a resurrection of the idea of the People's Production Plan, formulated in 1976 when the country faced an oil crisis and production emergency. Out of that earlier initiative came an emergency production plan.
These task forces and a future government would have a lot to work with. Apart from the JEEP plan to consider, the PNP left a tourism master plan, plan to make Jamaica into a cultural superstate, Harmony Cove development plan, LNG energy plan, agricultural plan, education transformation plan, Falmouth cruise ship pier plan, Roaring River property development plan, sports development plan, and a plan for the Montego Bay Convention Centre. In addition, there is Robert Stephens' worthy Port Royal, Kingston and Spanish Town development plan.
In addition, Mrs Simpson Miller plans to hold a seminar on development soon. This seminar will flesh out much of what she talked about in her conference speech and add new ideas.
We need to prioritise production over consumption and exports over imports. Consumption is politically popular. It feeds the feel-good condition. But I hear that Jamaica, despite having one of the highest debts in the world, also has one of the highest consumption rates in the world. Most of what we consume is imported. We are among the greatest consumers, per capita, of cellphone credit, wigs, bleaching cream and SUVs. We have not been a productive society. We are a consumer society, and that is because we consume status. We have consumed ourselves into a crisis.
We should spend our money on production. When Portia Simpson Miller visited Brazil in 2006, she negotiated a US$100-million line of credit to finance the importation of machinery and agricultural equipment for harvesting sugar cane and for producing sugar, alcohol and ethanol. When P.J. Patterson entered the PetroCaribe agreement and upgraded Jamaica's relations with China (in 2004), he laid the basis for Jamaica to benefit from about US$1.5 billion in just these bilateral and multilateral loans alone.
Sometimes, though, we consume away this money rather than putting it to work for us. Our politicians are not all the problem. They bring in loans and we consume them in wigs and bleaching cream, in cellphone calls, and SUVs.
Emergency Political Plan
But our politicians are also a part of the problem, some more than others. The JLP, for example, is also in crisis. Its supporters have lost their jobs and are falling into poverty. The economy is bad for their business supporters and there is little investment to stimulate the different sectors. The middle class is experiencing a crisis of social mobility.
Rather than an economic emergency-production plan, the JLP seems more interested in an emergency political--election plan. At a time when we need an emergency production plan, the Government is spending more than US$300 million of a Chinese loan on road building. It should have divided up that loan to support the many productive plans that we have on the shelf gathering dust. They would contribute directly to production and growth. And, it should not be spending 75 per cent on JLP constituencies and 25 per cent on PNP constituencies. There is no production logic in that.
What could some of this money be invested in? The PNP announced the Audio Visual Intervention Scheme (AVIS) designed to reduce the cost of education. Shadow minister of education, Ronnie Thwaites, proposed a plan to use the broadcast media to present information from the curricula for students to listen to and to watch, thereby saving some book costs.
AVIS would also address social challenges like lifestyle choices and community development. Micro, small and medium-sized production houses would design and produce the educational programmes. Our actors, actresses, soundtrack developers, producers, graphic artists, technicians and other creative and cultural practitioners would be put to work. This would also facilitate the training of young people and recent graduates, who would be employed to the production teams.
The Chinese loan could also have been invested in providing more than one million square feet of office space for ICT businesses, as the PNP proposes. The PNP would use development funds from the PetroCaribe Fund. That fund would also allow Government to utilise its unused fibre-optic capacity to generate lower telecoms rates. The PNP says it will provide inexpensive broadband telecommunications to entrepreneurs who specialise in providing ICT jobs for the disabled. It will provide free broadband to businesses that employ persons with disabilities.
Our loans could also have been invested in agroprocessing. The fruits and vegetables we grow in Jamaica must not go to waste. We must put people to work to add value to them. We can dry them, candy them, can them, and use the by-products in many innovative ways.
In 2007, the Brazilian government agreed to assist in training and providing technical assistance in this area. The PNP would revisit this agreement. Jamaica can use its plants and herbs to create nutraceuticals and pharmaceuticals.
