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NEWS IN BRIEF
Top News in the Print Media: The Jamaica Information Service,
The Gleaner & The Observer
From the Overseas Department, Jamaica Information Service
Thursday September 04, 2003
SPECIAL ATTENTION FOR SMALL ISLAND STATES
The Observer: The United Nations conference, which just ended in Cuba and which seeks to halt land degradation and promote sustainable development, has agreed on the need for small island states to receive "special attention" in resource allocation, a point which Jamaican Prime Minister P. J. Patterson forcefully asserted during conference deliberations.
In fact, the final conference declaration highlighted and accepted the point that, "Small Island Developing States are ecologically especially vulnerable and fragile, and are a special case for sustainable development."
Specifically, the declaration agreed on by Heads of Government from the Caribbean, Latin America and Africa endorsed a new financial mechanism for the Global Environmental Facility, which it called on, "to develop specific guidelines to facilitate easy and timely access by Small Island Developing States to financing".
SPOT MARKET WEIGHTED AVERAGE RATE
CURRENCY____PURCHASES___SALES
__US$_______59.2909_____59.5080
__CAN$______43.3447_____42.8265
__GB£_______91.7462_____92.8079
NEW MINIMUM WAGE
The Gleaner: Minister of Labour and Social Security Horace Dalley yesterday announced a new National Minimum Wage as well new minimum rates for security guards, which will come into effect on November 1, 2003.
The new rates, which are subject to the approval of Parliament but have been passed by Cabinet, will increase the minimum wage from $1,800 per week to $2,000 per week, an increase of 11.1 per cent. For industrial security guards, the new hourly rate will be $80 per hour, up from $70.70 per hour, an increase of 13.15%.
The annualisation of the increases in the minimum rates will not be effective before January 1, 2005, however, which means that there will be no increase next year. In January, Mr. Dalley had proposed that the rates be changed annually, to ensure gradual increases and minimise the effect of the substantial increases on employers at longer intervals.
DISAPPOINTING CXC RESULTS
The Gleaner: Declining pass rates, including a 15.4 per cent plunge in Geography, an 11 per cent fall-off in English Language and Chemistry, and an eight per cent drop in Principles of Business, have cast a shadow over this year's Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) results.
Only one-third of the candidates sitting the Mathematics examination registered passes, a decline of three percentage points over last year's figures.
Information Technology fell to its lowest level in three years to 59 per cent, a decline of seven percentage points over last year's figures. IT passes reached a peak of 91.76 per cent in the year 2001.
C&W HIKES ITS LOCAL RATES
The Gleaner: Cable & Wireless Jamaica (C&WJ) has increased the prices of domestic telephone calls by an average of about 30 per cent, the latest in a series of rate adjustments to re-balance revenues.
The revised rates, which became effective on Monday, will see callers using the international direct dialling service paying a reduced flat fee of $16.50 per minute for all zones except Cuba.
At the same time, companies using domestic toll free lines will now be required to pay increases ranging from a low of 100 per cent to a high of 575 per cent for the service.
According to David Geddes, communications manager at the Office of Utilities Regulation (OUR), the revised rates are based on aggregate price movements approved by the regulatory body under the price cap regime for C&WJ over a four-year period.
SPECIAL CARICOM TRADE MEETING
The Observer: The special meeting of Caricom's Council for Trade and Economic Development on external negotiations, now on in Georgetown, Guyana, ends today.
The two-day meeting, which got underway yesterday, was convened to give regional ministers a chance to review "current progress" and develop strategies for upcoming meetings, such as the African Caribbean and Pacific Group (ACP) and the World Trade Organisation (WTO) Fifth Ministerial, slated for September 9-14.
JIS NEWS
Thursday September 04, 2003
US$100M SECURITY IMPROVEMENT
The Port Authority of Jamaica has embarked on a US$100 million security improvement programme in a bid to intercept terrorists and eliminate illegal drug trade activities.
Superintendent James Forbes, Vice-President in charge of Security at the Port Authority told JIS News that the September 11 terrorist attack on the United States had engendered a more stringent security culture, which had propelled the Port Authority of Jamaica to implement more urbane security measures.
He said that the Authority was purchasing 12 x-ray units at a cost of over $1 billion and that five of the units are palettes, which will inspect bulk cargo, barrels, boxes, bags and palletised cargo. Five of the units will be housed at the Kingston and Montego Bay ports.
TOLL AUTHORITY TO BE DEBATED
The Toll Authority (Management) Regulations, 2003, which was tabled in the House of Representatives on Tuesday (Sept. 2), is to be discussed further.
The resolution, which was piloted by Minister of Transport and Works, Robert Pickersgill for affirmation at the next sitting of the House, was made under section 4 of The Toll Roads Act.
Based on the Regulations, the Minister has powers to introduce cost recovery measures for services provided by or on behalf of the Authority, and establish procedures and develop, implement and monitor a national plan, an emergency plan and other plans and programmes relating to toll roads.
The Minister is also given powers to initiate, carry out or support, by financial means or otherwise, research to ensure the proper use of toll roads; designate a suitable person from time to time, to be an authorised officer, whether employed by the Authority or not; and do anything or enter into any arrangement which, in the opinion of the Authority, is necessary to ensure the proper performance of its functions.
UNESCO PRIORITIES BEING DISCUSSED
A three-day consultation aimed at assessing the strategic priorities of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), is now underway at the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Montego Bay, with representatives and major stakeholders from its 20-member countries participating.
The three-day event which started on Monday (Sept.1) will examine topics such as; the millennium development goals; issues, challenges and perspectives of Caribbean Societies today; political commitments and regional integration; UNESCO’s priorities in the Caribbean programme for 2004-2005 and Caribbean presence and role in UNESCO. Top officials from UNESCO are scheduled to make presentations.
Helene-Marie Gosselin, Director, UNESCO Office for the Caribbean, said that participants, including a number of representatives from education ministries across the regions, Caribbean members of UNESCO’s executive board and governing bodies, would “seek to take stock of its present performance and presence”.
JAS TO RECEIVE $10M
Minister of Agriculture, Roger Clarke has said that the Jamaica Agricultural Society (JAS) would be provided with a grant of $10 million for the implementation and operation of an agricultural marketing system, and that an advance of $5 million had been given to the JAS.
Minister Clarke was answering questions posed by Opposition Spokesman for Agriculture, J.C. Hutchinson, in the House of Representatives on Tuesday (September 2), regarding the cost of implementing and operating the agricultural marketing system.
Informing the House that $10 million had been approved for the marketing programme, Minister Clarke noted that an initial amount of $5 million had been advanced to the JAS.
On the question of why the marketing programme had been passed on to the JAS, when in fact the Minister of Agriculture had stated that from 1999, it would have implemented the marketing system, Minister Clarke replied that his Ministry’s involvement in the marketing system, which has already been enunciated by the House of Representatives, related to the implementation of the Agricultural Business Information System (ABIS).
Contact: Celia Lindsay
For further information about any of these news items,contact the Overseas Department at
[email protected]
The Jamaica Information Service web page address is
www.jis.gov.jm
Telephone: (876) 926-3740-8 / 926-3590-8, Fax: (876) 926-6715
COMMENTARY
Thursday September 04, 2003
THE OBSERVER
INTEREST RATES AND THE GOVERNMENT’S RESPONSIBILITY
THE conundrum as always, is which comes first, the chicken or the egg.
The answer: the one that is in the control of the government. That is assuming that you are talking about interest rates.
We are! And doing so in the context of the renewed debate on where responsibility principally lies in reducing interest rates, thus creating an environment more inviting to productive investment.
We have returned to this issue in the face of the resurgence of those who advocate that the problem of high interest rates and the emergence of an investment-averse environment is largely the fault of the private sector. As the argument goes, there are those greedy, graspy business types with their pockets already full of cash, who constantly demand more and more for the cash that they lend.
Which, of course, is only a small part of the story. Indeed, interest rates in Jamaica are largely market-determined. We assume that in markets there will be willing buyers and willing sellers where rational people make decisions that are in their best interest. Largely self-interest.
So in a marketplace, we expect, in the normal course of things, that people will attempt to get the best return on their investment or the best price on their goods and services. When a commodity is in short supply or a purchaser wants it so badly that the seller is in control, the price is likely to rise. A simple law of supply and demand.
It is hardly different whether that commodity is sugar or bananas or yams or, for that matter, currency. Interest rates will move up and down depending on what premium people are willing to pay on loans. But such things are also influenced by the signals markets get from governments in terms of policy directions.
The fact is that in Jamaica the major player in the debt market has been the Government and the signal that it has for a long time sent to lenders is not one that is consistent with a firm commitment to a sustained lowering of interest rates.
The point we make is that this thing is not only about moral suasion and appealing to people's sense of patriotism. At its core, it is about policy: the undertaking given by an administration and the extent to which they are fulfilled.
Policymakers, for instance, cannot announce a target for a public sector deficit of four per cent of GDP one day, end with a deficit of twice that level, go out to borrow like a drunken sailor on a binge and then expect that interest rates to fall. Especially if all of this has happened in a context where the borrower-in-chief has just announced that he knew that the bank was bust but went on the binge nonetheless.
The only credible way, in our context, to ensure a concerted decline in interest rates is for the Government to reduce its craving, if not avarice, for debt. This will happen in two ways. The first is an adherence to fiscal discipline, which means the Government living within its means -- broadly. It has to collect its taxes, ensure efficiency and eliminate waste -- insofar as possible.
The other part of the programme must be the implementation, and efficacious management of policies, which will encourage investment and growth -- of which lower interest rates form a part.
Anything else will be half-way measures and we will all end up just whistling in the dark.
===========================================
THE GLEANER
GIVE A CHANCE
THE 2003 sugar crop at 152,537 tonnes has been described as the worst in over 60 years. The records show that only since the 1940 figure of 100,910 tonnes, was production lower. The producers could claim that it was at the height of the Second World War and therefore understandable. The current producers are blaming it on the weather and the unavailability of inputs when required. That is not good enough. Admittedly, there is not much we can do about the weather except perhaps the construction of proper and adequate drainage systems that will quickly remove the floodwaters. There is no excuse, however, for the perennial problem of late provision of funds to carry out the vital repairs and maintenance of factories and replanting of ratoon fields.
The outcome of this negligence has been the embarrassment of not being able to meet our modest export quotas for the first time in many years. Then on top of the loss of valuable foreign exchange earnings is the further embarrassment of having to increase our imports of sugar for local consumption. Yet, in spite of all that, we cannot give up on sugar.
No one can dispute the sugar industry's unparalleled influence on Jamaica's socio-economic and political development. Nor can anyone deny its stabilising effect on rural communities through employment and its numerous linkages with other industries. And although over the centuries King Sugar's dominance has declined, it has managed to retain its influence through its versatility and resilience. Sugar still dominates the agricultural sector as the major export crop and that is only for its primary product raw sugar. We have yet to deal with the value-added refined product. Its main by-product, rum, is world-renowned and a major earner of foreign exchange.
Additionally, there are scores of others with great potential in areas such as nutraceuticals and functional foods and fuels, to name a few. Diversification is of importance at this stage with the imminent removal of our traditional guaranteed market and the inevitable reduction in prices.
We have markets for 300,000 tonnes annually and a window of opportunity of another five years to make ourselves competitive. It must be remembered that while in 1940 we produced only 100,910 tonnes, by 1965 we were doing well over 500,000 tonnes. If we were able to make the change then it is possible now, but it requires the will and the determination to make the right decisions. The two privately owned factories are forging ahead. The publicly owned ones, which control 80 per cent of the industry, need to do likewise.
There is nothing wrong with the sugar industry per se. There is everything wrong with how it has been managed, financed and developed. It is too important to the country's social and economic well-being to be treated with such seeming casualness. It is time for the Government to stop paying lip service and give the sugar industry a chance.
Top News in the Print Media: The Jamaica Information Service,
The Gleaner & The Observer
From the Overseas Department, Jamaica Information Service
Thursday September 04, 2003
SPECIAL ATTENTION FOR SMALL ISLAND STATES
The Observer: The United Nations conference, which just ended in Cuba and which seeks to halt land degradation and promote sustainable development, has agreed on the need for small island states to receive "special attention" in resource allocation, a point which Jamaican Prime Minister P. J. Patterson forcefully asserted during conference deliberations.
In fact, the final conference declaration highlighted and accepted the point that, "Small Island Developing States are ecologically especially vulnerable and fragile, and are a special case for sustainable development."
Specifically, the declaration agreed on by Heads of Government from the Caribbean, Latin America and Africa endorsed a new financial mechanism for the Global Environmental Facility, which it called on, "to develop specific guidelines to facilitate easy and timely access by Small Island Developing States to financing".
SPOT MARKET WEIGHTED AVERAGE RATE
CURRENCY____PURCHASES___SALES
__US$_______59.2909_____59.5080
__CAN$______43.3447_____42.8265
__GB£_______91.7462_____92.8079
NEW MINIMUM WAGE
The Gleaner: Minister of Labour and Social Security Horace Dalley yesterday announced a new National Minimum Wage as well new minimum rates for security guards, which will come into effect on November 1, 2003.
The new rates, which are subject to the approval of Parliament but have been passed by Cabinet, will increase the minimum wage from $1,800 per week to $2,000 per week, an increase of 11.1 per cent. For industrial security guards, the new hourly rate will be $80 per hour, up from $70.70 per hour, an increase of 13.15%.
The annualisation of the increases in the minimum rates will not be effective before January 1, 2005, however, which means that there will be no increase next year. In January, Mr. Dalley had proposed that the rates be changed annually, to ensure gradual increases and minimise the effect of the substantial increases on employers at longer intervals.
DISAPPOINTING CXC RESULTS
The Gleaner: Declining pass rates, including a 15.4 per cent plunge in Geography, an 11 per cent fall-off in English Language and Chemistry, and an eight per cent drop in Principles of Business, have cast a shadow over this year's Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) results.
Only one-third of the candidates sitting the Mathematics examination registered passes, a decline of three percentage points over last year's figures.
Information Technology fell to its lowest level in three years to 59 per cent, a decline of seven percentage points over last year's figures. IT passes reached a peak of 91.76 per cent in the year 2001.
C&W HIKES ITS LOCAL RATES
The Gleaner: Cable & Wireless Jamaica (C&WJ) has increased the prices of domestic telephone calls by an average of about 30 per cent, the latest in a series of rate adjustments to re-balance revenues.
The revised rates, which became effective on Monday, will see callers using the international direct dialling service paying a reduced flat fee of $16.50 per minute for all zones except Cuba.
At the same time, companies using domestic toll free lines will now be required to pay increases ranging from a low of 100 per cent to a high of 575 per cent for the service.
According to David Geddes, communications manager at the Office of Utilities Regulation (OUR), the revised rates are based on aggregate price movements approved by the regulatory body under the price cap regime for C&WJ over a four-year period.
SPECIAL CARICOM TRADE MEETING
The Observer: The special meeting of Caricom's Council for Trade and Economic Development on external negotiations, now on in Georgetown, Guyana, ends today.
The two-day meeting, which got underway yesterday, was convened to give regional ministers a chance to review "current progress" and develop strategies for upcoming meetings, such as the African Caribbean and Pacific Group (ACP) and the World Trade Organisation (WTO) Fifth Ministerial, slated for September 9-14.
JIS NEWS
Thursday September 04, 2003
US$100M SECURITY IMPROVEMENT
The Port Authority of Jamaica has embarked on a US$100 million security improvement programme in a bid to intercept terrorists and eliminate illegal drug trade activities.
Superintendent James Forbes, Vice-President in charge of Security at the Port Authority told JIS News that the September 11 terrorist attack on the United States had engendered a more stringent security culture, which had propelled the Port Authority of Jamaica to implement more urbane security measures.
He said that the Authority was purchasing 12 x-ray units at a cost of over $1 billion and that five of the units are palettes, which will inspect bulk cargo, barrels, boxes, bags and palletised cargo. Five of the units will be housed at the Kingston and Montego Bay ports.
TOLL AUTHORITY TO BE DEBATED
The Toll Authority (Management) Regulations, 2003, which was tabled in the House of Representatives on Tuesday (Sept. 2), is to be discussed further.
The resolution, which was piloted by Minister of Transport and Works, Robert Pickersgill for affirmation at the next sitting of the House, was made under section 4 of The Toll Roads Act.
Based on the Regulations, the Minister has powers to introduce cost recovery measures for services provided by or on behalf of the Authority, and establish procedures and develop, implement and monitor a national plan, an emergency plan and other plans and programmes relating to toll roads.
The Minister is also given powers to initiate, carry out or support, by financial means or otherwise, research to ensure the proper use of toll roads; designate a suitable person from time to time, to be an authorised officer, whether employed by the Authority or not; and do anything or enter into any arrangement which, in the opinion of the Authority, is necessary to ensure the proper performance of its functions.
UNESCO PRIORITIES BEING DISCUSSED
A three-day consultation aimed at assessing the strategic priorities of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), is now underway at the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Montego Bay, with representatives and major stakeholders from its 20-member countries participating.
The three-day event which started on Monday (Sept.1) will examine topics such as; the millennium development goals; issues, challenges and perspectives of Caribbean Societies today; political commitments and regional integration; UNESCO’s priorities in the Caribbean programme for 2004-2005 and Caribbean presence and role in UNESCO. Top officials from UNESCO are scheduled to make presentations.
Helene-Marie Gosselin, Director, UNESCO Office for the Caribbean, said that participants, including a number of representatives from education ministries across the regions, Caribbean members of UNESCO’s executive board and governing bodies, would “seek to take stock of its present performance and presence”.
JAS TO RECEIVE $10M
Minister of Agriculture, Roger Clarke has said that the Jamaica Agricultural Society (JAS) would be provided with a grant of $10 million for the implementation and operation of an agricultural marketing system, and that an advance of $5 million had been given to the JAS.
Minister Clarke was answering questions posed by Opposition Spokesman for Agriculture, J.C. Hutchinson, in the House of Representatives on Tuesday (September 2), regarding the cost of implementing and operating the agricultural marketing system.
Informing the House that $10 million had been approved for the marketing programme, Minister Clarke noted that an initial amount of $5 million had been advanced to the JAS.
On the question of why the marketing programme had been passed on to the JAS, when in fact the Minister of Agriculture had stated that from 1999, it would have implemented the marketing system, Minister Clarke replied that his Ministry’s involvement in the marketing system, which has already been enunciated by the House of Representatives, related to the implementation of the Agricultural Business Information System (ABIS).
Contact: Celia Lindsay
For further information about any of these news items,contact the Overseas Department at
[email protected]
The Jamaica Information Service web page address is
www.jis.gov.jm
Telephone: (876) 926-3740-8 / 926-3590-8, Fax: (876) 926-6715
COMMENTARY
Thursday September 04, 2003
THE OBSERVER
INTEREST RATES AND THE GOVERNMENT’S RESPONSIBILITY
THE conundrum as always, is which comes first, the chicken or the egg.
The answer: the one that is in the control of the government. That is assuming that you are talking about interest rates.
We are! And doing so in the context of the renewed debate on where responsibility principally lies in reducing interest rates, thus creating an environment more inviting to productive investment.
We have returned to this issue in the face of the resurgence of those who advocate that the problem of high interest rates and the emergence of an investment-averse environment is largely the fault of the private sector. As the argument goes, there are those greedy, graspy business types with their pockets already full of cash, who constantly demand more and more for the cash that they lend.
Which, of course, is only a small part of the story. Indeed, interest rates in Jamaica are largely market-determined. We assume that in markets there will be willing buyers and willing sellers where rational people make decisions that are in their best interest. Largely self-interest.
So in a marketplace, we expect, in the normal course of things, that people will attempt to get the best return on their investment or the best price on their goods and services. When a commodity is in short supply or a purchaser wants it so badly that the seller is in control, the price is likely to rise. A simple law of supply and demand.
It is hardly different whether that commodity is sugar or bananas or yams or, for that matter, currency. Interest rates will move up and down depending on what premium people are willing to pay on loans. But such things are also influenced by the signals markets get from governments in terms of policy directions.
The fact is that in Jamaica the major player in the debt market has been the Government and the signal that it has for a long time sent to lenders is not one that is consistent with a firm commitment to a sustained lowering of interest rates.
The point we make is that this thing is not only about moral suasion and appealing to people's sense of patriotism. At its core, it is about policy: the undertaking given by an administration and the extent to which they are fulfilled.
Policymakers, for instance, cannot announce a target for a public sector deficit of four per cent of GDP one day, end with a deficit of twice that level, go out to borrow like a drunken sailor on a binge and then expect that interest rates to fall. Especially if all of this has happened in a context where the borrower-in-chief has just announced that he knew that the bank was bust but went on the binge nonetheless.
The only credible way, in our context, to ensure a concerted decline in interest rates is for the Government to reduce its craving, if not avarice, for debt. This will happen in two ways. The first is an adherence to fiscal discipline, which means the Government living within its means -- broadly. It has to collect its taxes, ensure efficiency and eliminate waste -- insofar as possible.
The other part of the programme must be the implementation, and efficacious management of policies, which will encourage investment and growth -- of which lower interest rates form a part.
Anything else will be half-way measures and we will all end up just whistling in the dark.
===========================================
THE GLEANER
GIVE A CHANCE
THE 2003 sugar crop at 152,537 tonnes has been described as the worst in over 60 years. The records show that only since the 1940 figure of 100,910 tonnes, was production lower. The producers could claim that it was at the height of the Second World War and therefore understandable. The current producers are blaming it on the weather and the unavailability of inputs when required. That is not good enough. Admittedly, there is not much we can do about the weather except perhaps the construction of proper and adequate drainage systems that will quickly remove the floodwaters. There is no excuse, however, for the perennial problem of late provision of funds to carry out the vital repairs and maintenance of factories and replanting of ratoon fields.
The outcome of this negligence has been the embarrassment of not being able to meet our modest export quotas for the first time in many years. Then on top of the loss of valuable foreign exchange earnings is the further embarrassment of having to increase our imports of sugar for local consumption. Yet, in spite of all that, we cannot give up on sugar.
No one can dispute the sugar industry's unparalleled influence on Jamaica's socio-economic and political development. Nor can anyone deny its stabilising effect on rural communities through employment and its numerous linkages with other industries. And although over the centuries King Sugar's dominance has declined, it has managed to retain its influence through its versatility and resilience. Sugar still dominates the agricultural sector as the major export crop and that is only for its primary product raw sugar. We have yet to deal with the value-added refined product. Its main by-product, rum, is world-renowned and a major earner of foreign exchange.
Additionally, there are scores of others with great potential in areas such as nutraceuticals and functional foods and fuels, to name a few. Diversification is of importance at this stage with the imminent removal of our traditional guaranteed market and the inevitable reduction in prices.
We have markets for 300,000 tonnes annually and a window of opportunity of another five years to make ourselves competitive. It must be remembered that while in 1940 we produced only 100,910 tonnes, by 1965 we were doing well over 500,000 tonnes. If we were able to make the change then it is possible now, but it requires the will and the determination to make the right decisions. The two privately owned factories are forging ahead. The publicly owned ones, which control 80 per cent of the industry, need to do likewise.
There is nothing wrong with the sugar industry per se. There is everything wrong with how it has been managed, financed and developed. It is too important to the country's social and economic well-being to be treated with such seeming casualness. It is time for the Government to stop paying lip service and give the sugar industry a chance.