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The key to moving Jamaica from third to first world
Friday, June 24, 2011
The Institute of Chartered Accountants of the Caribbean (ICAC) is holding a conference today under the theme 'Third to First - Going the Distance'. The theme clearly draws inspiration from Jamaicans' and other Caribbean nationals' superlative achievements in track and field.
It is also a clear reference to former Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew's book From Third World to First: The Singapore Story, which outlines Singapore's achievement in moving out of the ranks of the third world to developed country status in only one generation.
Singapore's extremely strong economic performance has continued over the past decade. It grew an estimated 15 per cent in 2010, or more in one year than Jamaica has grown in any decade since the 1960s.
The conference's keynote speaker is economist Henri Ghesquiere, visiting professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, part of the National University of Singapore.
In keeping with the theme of the conference, Professor Ghesquiere noted in a recent radio interview here that economic development is "a marathon and not a sprint". The key was to forge a national consensus around sound, long-term economic policy issues.
Development, he said, requires government commitment to pursue the right policies over a prolonged period of time, necessitating trust and partnership, for example between employers and unions. Sometimes, he observed, a country such as Jamaica had no good choices, but prevention was better than the cure.
The ICAC seminar comes after the launch last Friday of the World Bank's 305-page country economic memorandum entitled Unlocking Growth, which advises that the bank's memorandum is not focused on issues of short-term economic growth, such as those addressed by the Jamaican Government's growth inducement strategy, but tries to identify the "binding constraints" to faster, long-term economic growth in Jamaica.
The study takes a holistic approach, looking at growth from every angle and concludes, perhaps unsurprisingly, that crime, deficient human capital and fiscal distortions are Jamaica's top challenges.
Mr Zafer Mustafaoglu, the lead economist in charge of preparing the report, argues that faster, sustained growth requires that the society put the same level of focused, concentrated effort into creating the consensus to achieve growth that it put into the Jamaica Debt Exchange.
Mr Lee Kuan Yew himself visited Jamaica many decades ago and has since built a nation. Singapore has a population similar in size to that of Jamaica, but is much smaller in terms of its physical land mass, and has no natural resources. Like Jamaica, one of its main assets is its geographical location, which it has used to become one of the world's great ports.
Other key elements of Singapore's success are a zero tolerance policy on crime, an extremely strong emphasis on education and improving human capital, and a very competitive tax and regulatory environment aimed at bringing in multinational business.
Jamaica has been waiting a long time for our politicians to focus on pushing through long-term solutions to our problems, rather than creating sound and fury for cheap, short-term political gain.
Working together to create the consensus to remove the binding constraints identified by the World Bank might be a good place for our politicians to start. There is no reason for Jamaica not to achieve consensus on how to tackle crime, education and tax reform within six months other than the absence of a willingness to put country above party.
Read more: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/edito...#ixzz1QfnKD2eR
Friday, June 24, 2011
The Institute of Chartered Accountants of the Caribbean (ICAC) is holding a conference today under the theme 'Third to First - Going the Distance'. The theme clearly draws inspiration from Jamaicans' and other Caribbean nationals' superlative achievements in track and field.
It is also a clear reference to former Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew's book From Third World to First: The Singapore Story, which outlines Singapore's achievement in moving out of the ranks of the third world to developed country status in only one generation.
Singapore's extremely strong economic performance has continued over the past decade. It grew an estimated 15 per cent in 2010, or more in one year than Jamaica has grown in any decade since the 1960s.
The conference's keynote speaker is economist Henri Ghesquiere, visiting professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, part of the National University of Singapore.
In keeping with the theme of the conference, Professor Ghesquiere noted in a recent radio interview here that economic development is "a marathon and not a sprint". The key was to forge a national consensus around sound, long-term economic policy issues.
Development, he said, requires government commitment to pursue the right policies over a prolonged period of time, necessitating trust and partnership, for example between employers and unions. Sometimes, he observed, a country such as Jamaica had no good choices, but prevention was better than the cure.
The ICAC seminar comes after the launch last Friday of the World Bank's 305-page country economic memorandum entitled Unlocking Growth, which advises that the bank's memorandum is not focused on issues of short-term economic growth, such as those addressed by the Jamaican Government's growth inducement strategy, but tries to identify the "binding constraints" to faster, long-term economic growth in Jamaica.
The study takes a holistic approach, looking at growth from every angle and concludes, perhaps unsurprisingly, that crime, deficient human capital and fiscal distortions are Jamaica's top challenges.
Mr Zafer Mustafaoglu, the lead economist in charge of preparing the report, argues that faster, sustained growth requires that the society put the same level of focused, concentrated effort into creating the consensus to achieve growth that it put into the Jamaica Debt Exchange.
Mr Lee Kuan Yew himself visited Jamaica many decades ago and has since built a nation. Singapore has a population similar in size to that of Jamaica, but is much smaller in terms of its physical land mass, and has no natural resources. Like Jamaica, one of its main assets is its geographical location, which it has used to become one of the world's great ports.
Other key elements of Singapore's success are a zero tolerance policy on crime, an extremely strong emphasis on education and improving human capital, and a very competitive tax and regulatory environment aimed at bringing in multinational business.
Jamaica has been waiting a long time for our politicians to focus on pushing through long-term solutions to our problems, rather than creating sound and fury for cheap, short-term political gain.
Working together to create the consensus to remove the binding constraints identified by the World Bank might be a good place for our politicians to start. There is no reason for Jamaica not to achieve consensus on how to tackle crime, education and tax reform within six months other than the absence of a willingness to put country above party.
Read more: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/edito...#ixzz1QfnKD2eR
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