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Dr. Davies should not criticise
I visited the COK Annual Public Forum on the Jamaican Economy on October 18 at the Hilton Hotel at which the keynote speaker was Dr. Omar Davies. I listened keenly to Mr. Davies, who was minister of finance for 14 years, to hear an honest assessment of the current state of the economy — the state in which he left it. The new government has not yet impacted it. Certainly the state in which he left it will largely determine the present lack of confidence that is being articulated in certain quarters.
Dr Davies was not admired for his forthrightness and transparency in his “management” of the economy as finance minister. Nor was he spared much criticism for the accounting practices and his obvious failures to restructure the public sector to make it more efficient and far less bureaucratic. Relying instead on the static MOU, which in itself is largely a do-nothing option which is unsustainable in the medium or long term.
His regime saw the piling up close to $1 trillion in debts and prolonged dangerously high interest rate regime as compared to that of our major trading partners. Our manufacturers and processors, as well as our employment and sustainable economic potentials, have all gone abroad and our imports ballooned out of control.
Quite frankly, Dr. Davies should be the last one to proffer inappropriate criticisms of the new government policies. Let someone else who has good progressive ideas and much better track record do this criticism. Dr. Davies’ approaches to Jamaica’s problems is a clear lesson of how not to do things if we wish productive results.
W. W Wood
P .O .Box 760
Kingston
Florissano1@hotmail.com
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I visited the COK Annual Public Forum on the Jamaican Economy on October 18 at the Hilton Hotel at which the keynote speaker was Dr. Omar Davies. I listened keenly to Mr. Davies, who was minister of finance for 14 years, to hear an honest assessment of the current state of the economy — the state in which he left it. The new government has not yet impacted it. Certainly the state in which he left it will largely determine the present lack of confidence that is being articulated in certain quarters.
Dr Davies was not admired for his forthrightness and transparency in his “management” of the economy as finance minister. Nor was he spared much criticism for the accounting practices and his obvious failures to restructure the public sector to make it more efficient and far less bureaucratic. Relying instead on the static MOU, which in itself is largely a do-nothing option which is unsustainable in the medium or long term.
His regime saw the piling up close to $1 trillion in debts and prolonged dangerously high interest rate regime as compared to that of our major trading partners. Our manufacturers and processors, as well as our employment and sustainable economic potentials, have all gone abroad and our imports ballooned out of control.
Quite frankly, Dr. Davies should be the last one to proffer inappropriate criticisms of the new government policies. Let someone else who has good progressive ideas and much better track record do this criticism. Dr. Davies’ approaches to Jamaica’s problems is a clear lesson of how not to do things if we wish productive results.
W. W Wood
P .O .Box 760
Kingston
Florissano1@hotmail.com
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