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Re: What the Jamaican private sector want!!
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Dr.Dudd</div><div class="ubbcode-body"><span style='font-size: 11pt'>The Large Jamaican businesses want the Jamaican government to reserve special favourable opportunities for local big businesses.
They resent that opportunities normally available to them should be equally available to foreign investors.
Their logic is that local investors should be given special opportunities because they are Jamaicans.
Is that reason enough?
Does local business reinvest their profits locally?
Do they invest in the education and scientific development of the country?
Where are the scholarships and Bursaries given to the Universities.
Do they give Jamaicans the same favourable opportunities they want from government?
Do they give small Jamaican businesses similar favourable treatment?
These are just questions,but very important ones. this is because it is nit enough to say that because my fore parents have been here for so many centuries, I should be faviured,but because There is a greater benefit to the Jamaican economy from that favour.
I have been saying that as far as I see their is no greater benefits to favouring Jamaican business,if they send their funds abroad where they are outside the economy those funds are not available in the economy to be used as loans to further improve the economy.
They employ foreign people not because they are more educated,but because they have lighter skin tone.
When I held a position as a manager at alcan as a young 20 something I was the first native Jamaican that did.
I made sure I groomed other native Jamaicans and today we have many Jamaicans in this position that we now take it for granted. The country has not suffered as a result. Why cant we do this today? why is It necessary to import people because of their shade,and then expect to get favourable treatment subsidized by the tax DOLLARS OF Jamaicans? </span> </div></div>
<span style="color: #CC0000">The dreams of the private sector</span>
Friday, November 16, 2007
Dear Editor,
For over 40 years, during both PNP and JLP administrations, we have been hearing that the private sector in Jamaica is "the engine of growth". It would be interesting to hear from the private sector leaders what are the main causes that prevented substantial economic growth in Jamaica.
Is it due to a lack of political will, or the bureaucracy in the civil service? If this is so, how do we explain when powerful international institutions like the IMF recruit our civil servants to be consultants?
Is it because the manufacturing sector has not been creative? Are we being affected by the constant geopolitical challenges globally, or is the problem one of education where we have failed to be initiators of our destiny? Certain elements believe that casino gambling will be one of the 'rolling calves' that will save us, but the analysis is myopic.
The argument is that many forms of gambling are operating in the country, therefore, the church should not critique casino gambling. This is implying that the Church should not preach against prostitution, proliferation of nuclear weapons, corruption, murder, same-sex marriages, because all the evils were present 12,000 years ago.
It is this type of thinking that says, once the social and economic consequences have been realised, then morality has to go on pre-retirement leave. The Church is not against the stewardship of wealth; it is the method. Theodore Sealy reminded a young journalist that the pulpit is more powerful than the pen.
Revd Canon Ernle Gordon
St Mary's Rectory
5 Cowper Drive
Kingston 20
[email protected]
<span style="color: #3366FF">Don't diminish the private sector to make your point, Rev Gordon</span>
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
Dear Editor,
Rev Canon Ernle Gordon in his letter published on November 15, 2007, seeks to determine the main causes for Jamaica failing to achieve more significant economic growth since Independence and questions the role of the private sector in the process.
While I welcome the Rev Canon's questions and am eager to answer them on behalf of the Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica (PSOJ), I must first state clearly that the issues raised with respect to the lack of substantial economic growth have been, and continue to be, addressed by the PSOJ and other private and public sector stakeholders.
I reflect to just one year ago when my tenure with the PSOJ began, the claim at that time is the same as now: we need to lobby for a more business-friendly environment, with fewer barriers to entry, simpler tax requirements, less bureaucracy, especially for small businesses and entrepreneurs, in order to stimulate significant growth for the Jamaican economy. It is our belief at the PSOJ that the role of the private sector is to promote prosperity through sustainable economic growth and development, and that the wider private and public sectors, the Church and indeed every citizen of this country, have a role to play.
In fact, a plethora of analysts, locally and internationally, have cited the reasons for our weak economic performance over the years. These are multi-faceted and too numerous to address in this response. They include onerous and stifling Government bureaucracy, ineffective economic policies and systems, corruption, mismanagement of resources, high public debt which adversely affects investment, inadequate social intervention programmes, steady declines in labour productivity, an education and training system that has failed to produce individuals with the competencies required for growth.. We could go on and on.
However, of significant importance is Jamaica's lack of responsiveness to changes that have been taking place in the global economy. We have been affected by numerous international trends which have often caught us off guard and we remain ill-equipped to handle these challenges. It is time now for us to move forward, learning our lessons from the past, but pressing on towards the best possible future for our country.
Most importantly, the PSOJ's view is that the main ingredient in the pursuit of economic prosperity is national consensus. However, I would caution anyone against attempting to diminish the private sector and its role, whether explicitly or implicitly, in an effort to strengthen their own position on a particular issue; for example, casino gambling.
State your point and state it well, because if it is worth its weight it should be able to stand on its own. Let us move away from the blame game and pursue what is in the best interest of everyone. a social partnership geared towards the shared objective of sustainable economic and social development in Jamaica.
The private sector has, for many years, been a leader in forging such partnerships and the PSOJ, which I have the honour to lead, has committed itself to working with our Government and civil society to bring about the reforms needed to accelerate economic growth. Just recently, members of the private sector spent a weekend with key Government officials to arrive at a broad consensus on the critical initiatives that will, inter alia, contribute to the development of a strong and vibrant economy that is investor-friendly and that will create jobs and address many of Jamaica's social ills. We are firm in our belief that the private sector can, with the appropriate framework provided by the Government, be the engine of growth for Jamaica.
Christopher Zacca
President
The Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica
<span style="color: #006600">Excellent reply, Zacca</span>
Friday, November 23, 2007
Dear Editor,
Let me congratulate Mr Christopher Zacca, the president of the Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica, for critiquing my letter, which provoked erudite intellectual thought and raised the level of national discourse to a new dimension.
As a theologian who admires and practises critical engagement, I am pleased to see that in the 35 years I have been writing in the print media, it is the first time that a member of the private sector has challenged my analysis with dashing style (panache).
Let me hope that the private sector in Jamaica will remember what Jesus said to the man who, at the pool at Bethesda, was waiting on angels to help him. Jesus told the man to take up his bed and walk.
We have economic gurus in Jamaica who need to challenge their minds and be innovative entrepreneurs. The professional beggar in Acts of the Apostles realised his God-given potential when his ankle bones became firm after he was released by Peter and John.
The private sector has a creative potential which is waiting to be released for transformation. The name Zacca rings in my ears, as I am aware of this surname in Cambridge, St James. We need to continue the dialogue between the theologian and the entrepreneur.
Revd Canon Ernle Gordon
St Mary's Rectory
5 Cowper Drive
Kingston 20
[email protected]
<span style="color: #663366">Traditional private sector bankrupt</span>
Peripheral capitalism though a product of metropolitan penetration is not comparable fundamentally in structure to metropolitan capitalism, not only in the economic domain, but also in the social structure and form of political organisation. There are no macro economically relevant dynamic intermeshing impetuses, as well as backward and forward linkages between the different sectors of the economy. For example, between agriculture, manufacturing, tourism and services, as well as the modern city located sector that uses semi-sophisticated production technologies and the rural based traditional sector which uses crypto capitalistic or outdated production techniques (machetes, hoes).
Peripheral capitalistic societies also have high import content because the bulk of their capital goods, spare parts and raw materials have to be imported from the metro poles. These societies are therefore vulnerable to external shocks such as changes in prices of commodities like crude oil, grains, wheat and other products which they do not produce.
This because their role during the primitive accumulation phase of slavery and colonialism was as suppliers of primary products such as sugar and bananas. Technically speaking, these countries are always subject to adverse terms of trade and balance of payments problems because the Marshall/Lerner conditions are not met.
Free enterprise
Jamaica is still very much a peripheral capitalistic society despite 45 years of independence and the implementation of many policy measures since 1975 to “free enterprise and watch Jamaica grow.” The traditional sections of the local private sector which made most of their money during the primitive accumulation phase, and by trading under the protection of tariff walls and subsidies during the last three decades are still unable to compete internationally in a liberalized environment.
This is mainly because they do not understand the current international environment and spend little time trying to. They also invest very little in research and development, as well as in training and that is one of the main reasons the country has been unable to unleash the latent product, human resource and entrepreneurial potential needed to make the transition to a developed country in a highly competitive and integrated international economy.
As Frederick Mishkin, former professor of economics at the University of Columbia, now Fed governor stressed in his recent book, the traditional business class use their power of control over the political and financial systems in a peripheral capitalistic society to stifle development in order to maintain their dominance.
He also contends that they use their influence over the political system to demand reductions in tax rates and increases in incentives to increases production.
Mishkin, like the Dominique Strauss Kahn-led, International Monetary Fund (IMF) however, contends that these tax reductions and incentives to the traditional business class, often have very little impact on output and employment, but on the contrary, result in government giving up much needed revenues.
This then leads to massive fiscal and social deficits, putting these governments on a treadmill of high interest rates, more debt, less growth, high unemployment and crime.
Jamaica is a classic case, the former government prematurely liberalized the foreign exchange market under pressure from the private sector in 1991 and this led to the problem of the sliding dollar, high interest rates, the financial sector fall-out, heavy borrowing, sluggish economic growth and the social deficits which we are still trying to correct. It is therefore against this background that we find it far fetched to see how we could place any great confidence in the advice or policy prescriptions of the traditional private sector which has very little Schumpetarian innovative capacity.
The sector’s major prescriptions are to reduce the rate of corporate taxes and give its members more incentives, although they have been getting these and other bailouts since 1962 and are now only paying 10 cents out of every dollar of corporate taxes they owe the same government. These are the same people who want the government to reduce the tax rate, while fixing the roads, employing more policemen, refurbishing the court houses, schools and hospitals at the same time. This is the same sector whose members in the financial community make billions of dollars in profits while pumping only 35 cents out of every dollar of their assets and 58 cents out of every dollar of their customers’ deposits into productive loans to expand the economy.
The traditional private sector is bankrupt, we need to expand the sector and give more recognition to the non-traditional players in all sectors of the economy and across the country because they are more innovative and internationally savvy.
<span style='font-size: 14pt'>Who inspired you Doc....which article are you quoting from</span>?
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Dr.Dudd</div><div class="ubbcode-body"><span style='font-size: 11pt'>The Large Jamaican businesses want the Jamaican government to reserve special favourable opportunities for local big businesses.
They resent that opportunities normally available to them should be equally available to foreign investors.
Their logic is that local investors should be given special opportunities because they are Jamaicans.
Is that reason enough?
Does local business reinvest their profits locally?
Do they invest in the education and scientific development of the country?
Where are the scholarships and Bursaries given to the Universities.
Do they give Jamaicans the same favourable opportunities they want from government?
Do they give small Jamaican businesses similar favourable treatment?
These are just questions,but very important ones. this is because it is nit enough to say that because my fore parents have been here for so many centuries, I should be faviured,but because There is a greater benefit to the Jamaican economy from that favour.
I have been saying that as far as I see their is no greater benefits to favouring Jamaican business,if they send their funds abroad where they are outside the economy those funds are not available in the economy to be used as loans to further improve the economy.
They employ foreign people not because they are more educated,but because they have lighter skin tone.
When I held a position as a manager at alcan as a young 20 something I was the first native Jamaican that did.
I made sure I groomed other native Jamaicans and today we have many Jamaicans in this position that we now take it for granted. The country has not suffered as a result. Why cant we do this today? why is It necessary to import people because of their shade,and then expect to get favourable treatment subsidized by the tax DOLLARS OF Jamaicans? </span> </div></div>
<span style="color: #CC0000">The dreams of the private sector</span>
Friday, November 16, 2007
Dear Editor,
For over 40 years, during both PNP and JLP administrations, we have been hearing that the private sector in Jamaica is "the engine of growth". It would be interesting to hear from the private sector leaders what are the main causes that prevented substantial economic growth in Jamaica.
Is it due to a lack of political will, or the bureaucracy in the civil service? If this is so, how do we explain when powerful international institutions like the IMF recruit our civil servants to be consultants?
Is it because the manufacturing sector has not been creative? Are we being affected by the constant geopolitical challenges globally, or is the problem one of education where we have failed to be initiators of our destiny? Certain elements believe that casino gambling will be one of the 'rolling calves' that will save us, but the analysis is myopic.
The argument is that many forms of gambling are operating in the country, therefore, the church should not critique casino gambling. This is implying that the Church should not preach against prostitution, proliferation of nuclear weapons, corruption, murder, same-sex marriages, because all the evils were present 12,000 years ago.
It is this type of thinking that says, once the social and economic consequences have been realised, then morality has to go on pre-retirement leave. The Church is not against the stewardship of wealth; it is the method. Theodore Sealy reminded a young journalist that the pulpit is more powerful than the pen.
Revd Canon Ernle Gordon
St Mary's Rectory
5 Cowper Drive
Kingston 20
[email protected]
<span style="color: #3366FF">Don't diminish the private sector to make your point, Rev Gordon</span>
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
Dear Editor,
Rev Canon Ernle Gordon in his letter published on November 15, 2007, seeks to determine the main causes for Jamaica failing to achieve more significant economic growth since Independence and questions the role of the private sector in the process.
While I welcome the Rev Canon's questions and am eager to answer them on behalf of the Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica (PSOJ), I must first state clearly that the issues raised with respect to the lack of substantial economic growth have been, and continue to be, addressed by the PSOJ and other private and public sector stakeholders.
I reflect to just one year ago when my tenure with the PSOJ began, the claim at that time is the same as now: we need to lobby for a more business-friendly environment, with fewer barriers to entry, simpler tax requirements, less bureaucracy, especially for small businesses and entrepreneurs, in order to stimulate significant growth for the Jamaican economy. It is our belief at the PSOJ that the role of the private sector is to promote prosperity through sustainable economic growth and development, and that the wider private and public sectors, the Church and indeed every citizen of this country, have a role to play.
In fact, a plethora of analysts, locally and internationally, have cited the reasons for our weak economic performance over the years. These are multi-faceted and too numerous to address in this response. They include onerous and stifling Government bureaucracy, ineffective economic policies and systems, corruption, mismanagement of resources, high public debt which adversely affects investment, inadequate social intervention programmes, steady declines in labour productivity, an education and training system that has failed to produce individuals with the competencies required for growth.. We could go on and on.
However, of significant importance is Jamaica's lack of responsiveness to changes that have been taking place in the global economy. We have been affected by numerous international trends which have often caught us off guard and we remain ill-equipped to handle these challenges. It is time now for us to move forward, learning our lessons from the past, but pressing on towards the best possible future for our country.
Most importantly, the PSOJ's view is that the main ingredient in the pursuit of economic prosperity is national consensus. However, I would caution anyone against attempting to diminish the private sector and its role, whether explicitly or implicitly, in an effort to strengthen their own position on a particular issue; for example, casino gambling.
State your point and state it well, because if it is worth its weight it should be able to stand on its own. Let us move away from the blame game and pursue what is in the best interest of everyone. a social partnership geared towards the shared objective of sustainable economic and social development in Jamaica.
The private sector has, for many years, been a leader in forging such partnerships and the PSOJ, which I have the honour to lead, has committed itself to working with our Government and civil society to bring about the reforms needed to accelerate economic growth. Just recently, members of the private sector spent a weekend with key Government officials to arrive at a broad consensus on the critical initiatives that will, inter alia, contribute to the development of a strong and vibrant economy that is investor-friendly and that will create jobs and address many of Jamaica's social ills. We are firm in our belief that the private sector can, with the appropriate framework provided by the Government, be the engine of growth for Jamaica.
Christopher Zacca
President
The Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica
<span style="color: #006600">Excellent reply, Zacca</span>
Friday, November 23, 2007
Dear Editor,
Let me congratulate Mr Christopher Zacca, the president of the Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica, for critiquing my letter, which provoked erudite intellectual thought and raised the level of national discourse to a new dimension.
As a theologian who admires and practises critical engagement, I am pleased to see that in the 35 years I have been writing in the print media, it is the first time that a member of the private sector has challenged my analysis with dashing style (panache).
Let me hope that the private sector in Jamaica will remember what Jesus said to the man who, at the pool at Bethesda, was waiting on angels to help him. Jesus told the man to take up his bed and walk.
We have economic gurus in Jamaica who need to challenge their minds and be innovative entrepreneurs. The professional beggar in Acts of the Apostles realised his God-given potential when his ankle bones became firm after he was released by Peter and John.
The private sector has a creative potential which is waiting to be released for transformation. The name Zacca rings in my ears, as I am aware of this surname in Cambridge, St James. We need to continue the dialogue between the theologian and the entrepreneur.
Revd Canon Ernle Gordon
St Mary's Rectory
5 Cowper Drive
Kingston 20
[email protected]
<span style="color: #663366">Traditional private sector bankrupt</span>
Peripheral capitalism though a product of metropolitan penetration is not comparable fundamentally in structure to metropolitan capitalism, not only in the economic domain, but also in the social structure and form of political organisation. There are no macro economically relevant dynamic intermeshing impetuses, as well as backward and forward linkages between the different sectors of the economy. For example, between agriculture, manufacturing, tourism and services, as well as the modern city located sector that uses semi-sophisticated production technologies and the rural based traditional sector which uses crypto capitalistic or outdated production techniques (machetes, hoes).
Peripheral capitalistic societies also have high import content because the bulk of their capital goods, spare parts and raw materials have to be imported from the metro poles. These societies are therefore vulnerable to external shocks such as changes in prices of commodities like crude oil, grains, wheat and other products which they do not produce.
This because their role during the primitive accumulation phase of slavery and colonialism was as suppliers of primary products such as sugar and bananas. Technically speaking, these countries are always subject to adverse terms of trade and balance of payments problems because the Marshall/Lerner conditions are not met.
Free enterprise
Jamaica is still very much a peripheral capitalistic society despite 45 years of independence and the implementation of many policy measures since 1975 to “free enterprise and watch Jamaica grow.” The traditional sections of the local private sector which made most of their money during the primitive accumulation phase, and by trading under the protection of tariff walls and subsidies during the last three decades are still unable to compete internationally in a liberalized environment.
This is mainly because they do not understand the current international environment and spend little time trying to. They also invest very little in research and development, as well as in training and that is one of the main reasons the country has been unable to unleash the latent product, human resource and entrepreneurial potential needed to make the transition to a developed country in a highly competitive and integrated international economy.
As Frederick Mishkin, former professor of economics at the University of Columbia, now Fed governor stressed in his recent book, the traditional business class use their power of control over the political and financial systems in a peripheral capitalistic society to stifle development in order to maintain their dominance.
He also contends that they use their influence over the political system to demand reductions in tax rates and increases in incentives to increases production.
Mishkin, like the Dominique Strauss Kahn-led, International Monetary Fund (IMF) however, contends that these tax reductions and incentives to the traditional business class, often have very little impact on output and employment, but on the contrary, result in government giving up much needed revenues.
This then leads to massive fiscal and social deficits, putting these governments on a treadmill of high interest rates, more debt, less growth, high unemployment and crime.
Jamaica is a classic case, the former government prematurely liberalized the foreign exchange market under pressure from the private sector in 1991 and this led to the problem of the sliding dollar, high interest rates, the financial sector fall-out, heavy borrowing, sluggish economic growth and the social deficits which we are still trying to correct. It is therefore against this background that we find it far fetched to see how we could place any great confidence in the advice or policy prescriptions of the traditional private sector which has very little Schumpetarian innovative capacity.
The sector’s major prescriptions are to reduce the rate of corporate taxes and give its members more incentives, although they have been getting these and other bailouts since 1962 and are now only paying 10 cents out of every dollar of corporate taxes they owe the same government. These are the same people who want the government to reduce the tax rate, while fixing the roads, employing more policemen, refurbishing the court houses, schools and hospitals at the same time. This is the same sector whose members in the financial community make billions of dollars in profits while pumping only 35 cents out of every dollar of their assets and 58 cents out of every dollar of their customers’ deposits into productive loans to expand the economy.
The traditional private sector is bankrupt, we need to expand the sector and give more recognition to the non-traditional players in all sectors of the economy and across the country because they are more innovative and internationally savvy.
<span style='font-size: 14pt'>Who inspired you Doc....which article are you quoting from</span>?
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