« Home | Jamaica not only Caribbean country with crime prob... » | If elections pass muster, Haiti can reenter Caribb... » | Posted on Sat, Feb. 11, 2006Haiti's next leader fa... » | Looking for a unified Caribbean currency in 2006pu... » | Public Health-minister interrogated on dengueSatur... » | February 10, 2006Strengthening Latino philanthropi... » | En inauguración de Expo FerreteraPresidente Fernán... » | Gender Responsive Budget Initiatives BrochureThis ... » | e-Conference: Building Bridges Between Women Entre... » | Pension Reforms and the Development of Pension Sys... » 

Sunday, February 12, 2006 

Portia's vision and plans
Sunday, February 12, 2006


Following is an edited version of pnp presidential candidate Portia Simpson Miller's address to an economic forum in Montego Bay last Wednesday, February 8.

A recent imf publication on emigration and the brain drain, with focus on the Caribbean shows that approximately 85 per cent of Jamaica's tertiary-educated labour force with more than 12 years of schooling had emigrated from the island to the developed countries. This does not include those who have left for Cayman and other islands in the Caribbean.

The report further indicates that Jamaica is among the top 20 nations of the world in terms of emigration rates.

This serious problem arises at a time when we are seeking to strengthen our human capital. We are concerned, because our substantial investments in training our best and brightest people end up as subsidy to the developed countries to which they have migrated.

Our high migration levels tell a story: we clearly have to do some things differently. Of course, every country exports labour, skilled and unskilled. But when we are exporting as much as 85 per cent of our tertiary-educated labour force, we have to do some serious rethinking of our labour market and overall social and economic strategies.

Something has to be done to convince bright, young Jamaicans that Jamaica is a place where they can live their dreams. Something has to be done to ignite passion in the hearts of young Jamaicans to want to stay here, contribute here and build their families here.

Something has to be done for these tertiary-educated Jamaicans and others to see Jamaica as their paradise too. There must emerge the Jamaican dream - a credible, livable Jamaican dream.

It is my mission to help to facilitate that dream; to provide a ladder to the dream; to be the person who would help to fire up the imagination of our people - our most valuable resource - to believe that Jamaica can be their land of promise and land of opportunity.

The pilgrims left England for America and built their dreams, but you should not have to leave Jamaica to build your dreams.I am convinced that we can do it right here at home. We can have safe, peaceful, harmonious communities characterised by love, sharing and caring for each other and participating in a shared vision.

We can have globally competitive corporations. We can have globally competitive service centres and small businesses. We can have globally competitive clusters of excellence known around the world for different types of expertise. We can have innovative, cutting-edge scientific and technological enterprises pulling talent to Jamaica rather than exporting it.We can harness our enormous creative talents and energise our creative people to further dazzle a world hungry for our cultural offerings.

We need to create an entrepreneurial revolution in Jamaica. That is the only way to deal with the jobless growth phenomenon of market globalisation. You cannot deal with the economic problems of Jamaica if you don't deal with the issue of unemployment. The level of employment is among the most critical economic issue facing the country today.

If we do not solve this problem, then every other aspect of the economic equation will be adversely affected. There will be social and political instability and the continued emigration of our most skilled people. The imperatives of globalisation demand that we focus fiscal, training and developmental polices toward building an entrepreneurial culture. Waiting on factories and large businesses to open will continue to frustrate our people.

Businesses will open up, but they will not necessarily provide enough of the jobs, which we need in this labour-surplus economy, unless they are based on the entrepreneurial creativity of our people.

Clearly, in this new environment more people will have to think in terms of creating their own employment, and my administration is committed to providing the support necessary to make it happen. A major, sustained emphasis on technical and vocational training is one such area of support. We plan to significantly expand technical and vocational training, with the active involvement of the private sector, to ensure this training expansion addresses their business needs.

Indeed, our initiatives in education and training will be closely aligned to our economic strategies. Education is the linchpin of economic growth and the catalyst to maximise our productive outputs. Our wealth will therefore come from the creativity, innovativeness and productivity of our people. My administration will also intensify the expansion of the Jamaica labour market information system (jalmis) to facilitate the interaction between job seekers and those seeking talents.

This comprehensive data bank on the labour market will also be valuable to international companies seeking skills in Jamaica or seeking to establish business here. It will thus serve as a means of showcasing our human capital.

We have to utilise information and communications technology to harness the benefits of globalisation, and the labour market information system, properly positioned and promoted, will be one important means of doing so.

This system would also prove invaluable in helping national planners to disaggregate information on employment, underemployment, the informal sector, as well as labour movement.

The information and communications technology revolution has created enormous opportunities for our country. We are determined to accelerate the expansion of the ict industry in Jamaica and to capture a larger share of the huge market for outsourcing from the United States and Europe.

But we are not stopping there, we will be going after the market for high-end ict skills and other high-level professional skills. With our excellent training programmes and a sophisticated Caribbean technology institute right here in Montego Bay we can capture a sizeable portion of this market.

With the expanded training, which we would facilitate, and greater coherence between employment needs, training delivery and curriculum design, our human resources will be significantly improved.

We will strengthen and enhance our scientific and technological capacity and the development of innovative industries. We have to increase value-added products, and thereby reduce our dependence on other people's ingenuity. We have an abundance of our own.

My administration will encourage and facilitate the building of a passion for research and development. This has been a weakness in the Jamaican business context. In this regard, we will have to create specific incentives to boost research and development. What we are talking about is a people-centered approach to economic development.

One that not only harnesses the creative and psychic energies of the people, but one in which the overarching objective is the development of people. It is an economic development by the people and for the people.This is also a central plank of our growth and development strategy about which I have spoken on many occasions. Critical to our economic development thrust will be a strong programme of integrated rural development.

If we ever hope to eliminate poverty and to release the full potential of the Jamaican people, we have to focus on rural development. Available data indicate that 72 per cent of the poor live in rural Jamaica, and agriculture is their main source of employment and income.

Women comprise 62 per cent of the adult population in the rural areas and as someone deeply concerned about the welfare of women, I have to prioritise rural development, agricultural diversification and expansion of agro-industrial production in order to correct this social imbalance.

An important part of our economic development strategy will be community governance and local government. I firmly believe that at the base of all that we do must be a community focus. Community-based entrepreneurs and civil society organisations must be adequately represented and involved in the decision making process.

Laws and regulations will be both developed and revised to strengthen community governance and local government.

I am a firm believer in the bottom-up approach to governance. I believe that out there in the various communities are the creative, wealth-building ideas, which this country needs to give us the strong economic growth required for sustainable development.

I believe that the people in the communities know what is in their best interest and our role as leaders is to give the people the mechanisms through which their ideas can come to the fore. And then we have to facilitate the implementation of those ideas.

I reject the view that the answer to the country's problems rests exclusively with any one set of individuals. We have to start listening to the people. We have to start engaging the people. We have to start drawing on their wealth of experience and wisdom.

Even the multilateral and bilateral institutions like the World Bank and usaid have made a significant turnaround in their approach to development issues and working with communities. They have found that the top-down approach has not worked and that community-oriented solutions are the most sustainable ones.

And to demonstrate our seriousness with this community-oriented, people-centred approach to economic development, we will be instituting a participatory budget process, which will involve communities as a well as various sectoral interests.

The country's budget is a critical tool of economic targeting and I believe that if we are to deepen democracy and to make it meaningful, then people should participate and have a say in the critical decisions which affect every Jamaican. It cannot be imposed without their participation.We will take the budget to the people.

We will ensure that adequate data, analysis and information sharing will be an integral feature of the process so that participation of the people will be meaningful.

The People's National Party has a glorious and honoured tradition of global involvement and that will continue under my administration. We are an island economy, but we cannot be an island unto ourselves. Small developing states like ours have no option but to be integrated into the global economy.

The World Trade Organisation is a reality we cannot wish away. We have to work with the wto and support the wto rules-based system because without it we would be left to the dictates of the most powerful.

What we have to ensure is that the wto's agenda is not hijacked or that there is no stalling on the critical developmental issues which face us. There is so much which hinges on international trade negotiations and it is absolutely important that Jamaica maintains a high profile in the global arena and in all the important theatres where the key issues are being discussed.

For example, with the elimination of preferences for sugar and banana, coffee offers opportunities for increased foreign exchange earnings. However, this opportunity lies in value-added activities such as roasting or other product mixes using coffee, not simply the export of green beans. But under existing trade arrangements, the export of value-added products would be faced with higher tariffs, which could render the product non-competitive.

Unless we engage in tough trade negotiations with both bilateral and multi-lateral partners, these barriers to the entry of value-added coffee products will hinder the trade in these goods, and by extension, act as a disincentive to further investments in these value-added activities and with it the loss of valuable jobs.

Our efforts to deepen regional integration will be accelerated under my administration. Everything will be done to ensure that Jamaica exploits all the benefits under the Caribbean Single Market immediately, and from 2008 the Caricom Single Market and Economy - and I have every intention of being prime minister up to 2008 when the csme becomes a reality!
Our involvement in Caricom will be an integral part of our strategic approach in navigating the high seas of globalisation.A stronger, more integrated Caricom will mean a stronger Jamaica, better able to maximise the opportunities unleashed by globalisation.

But we must make sure that we benefit from the csme arrangement. My administration will therefore establish a major csme institution with high-level leadership charged with the mandate to make sure Jamaica reaps benefits from the csm within the shortest possible time.

I personally will be actively promoting brand Jamaica, not only to overseas constituencies but to Jamaicans in the Diaspora to whom I will be making a major pitch, not just for remittances for consumption, but for investments in productive activities.

It is estimated that Jamaicans in the Diaspora have an earning capacity of some us$4 billion. We want to pull a significant portion of that for productive investments here on the rock. They are willing to join hands with us under the right environment.

In terms of foreign policy, we will continue to respect territorial integrity, the principle of non-interference in the internal affairs of sovereign states, the principle of ideological pluralism and the promotion of human rights.

Significantly, too, we will be pressing the development agenda as identified in the millennium development goals of the United Nations. Issues of poverty, underdevelopment, injustice and inequality are some of the critical underlying factors fueling international tensions.

As Africa increases its own participation in the global system and continues to expand its trade and investment, I intend to strengthen economic and trade ties with the mother continent.

The western countries and Asia are paying increasing attention to Africa. We in Jamaica and the Caribbean who have ancestral ties to Africa can afford to do no less, for both cultural and hard economic reasons. Interesting economic developments are sweeping across Africa, and these have been both noted and highlighted by the imf and the World Bank. My administration wants to seize the historic moment.

These are just some of the key elements of what I consider to be a "people-centred" economic development programme. It starts with communities. I have repeatedly argued that if we can fix our communities, we can fix Jamaica. We have developed a seven-point programme to do this.

One, we will address the problem of jobs and income generation through an elaborate programme to develop profitable businesses in communities.Two, we will ensure adequate social services, facilities & amenities in every community to support our entrepreneurial revolution over time.

Three, we will make sure that there is adequate financing for this expansion of entrepreneurship throughout the communities in Jamaica.Four, we will address the scourge of poverty by strengthening our poverty alleviation programme through our growth and development strategy. In this way we will address the urgent needs of the most vulnerable among us.

Five, we will give real meaning to community empowerment by strengthening community governance and giving real power and resources to local government.

Six, we understand the threats and opportunities of globalisation and so we will ensure that our trade and foreign policies address Jamaica's development needs, in particular, the entrepreneurial needs of communities.

Finally, we will actively pursue a "bottom up" approach to national policy, planning and decision-making. In so doing, we will make sure to that the average citizen in every community in Jamaica has an opportunity to influence the important national and regional decisions that will affect their lives.

No economic programme can work if the people's hearts and minds are not into it.It is only when people have a sense of belonging; only when they know that they do matter and that they have a voice in their own development; only when they trust the political process and believe that their political leaders are genuinely interested in a just, inclusive and equitable society, that their creative energies will be unleashed.

A society that is not inclusive and just; a society marked by gross inequalities and imbalances is not a society that will produce the kind of economic growth that is desirable.We must commit ourselves to build a society where the fruits of development are shared by all; not a lopsided society with a few who have and the majority who are on the margins.

I am committed to building an inclusive, just and equitable society; a society which respects everyone, irrespective of class, colour or gender. It must be a society which places a premium on ethics and character; A society which abhors corruption and elevates merit; a society which protects the weak, the vulnerable, the young and the old and persons who are physically and mentally challenged.

We want to return to the days when the community took the responsibility for its children and when everybody was truly his or her neighbour's keeper.

Remember when we could walk the streets freely, not only in the rural areas but in the urban communities? When we could dance all night to the pulsating rhythms of the sound systems without fear of violence? We want to return to those days.Remember the days when our children played with energy in their school yards without any thought of being hurt by another student?

When the teacher, pastor, postmistress, justice of the peace and policemen and women were respected and honoured in the entire community? We want to return to those days.I am not just expressing an empty nostalgia. I am expressing a vision for what we can still become.

I am saying, we have done it before and we can do it again.If we build a society with strong economic and spiritual foundations, we can soar way beyond our better past.I am committed to that vision. I ask all of you to embrace that vision with me. Jamaica's best days are ahead.


Copyright© 2000-2001 Jamaica Observer.

About me

  • I'm Em Asomba
  • From United States
My profile
Skype Me™!

Poverty & Social Development: A Caribbean Perspective is powered by Blogspot and Gecko & Fly.
No part of the content or the blog may be reproduced without prior written permission.
Join the Google Adsense program and learn how to make money online.