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Debate disappoints business leaders
BY INGRID BROWN Observer senior reporter browni@jamaicaobserver.com
Sunday, December 18, 2011
A number of Jamaica's senior business leaders have expressed disappointment that the national debate between Finance Minister Audley Shaw and Opposition spokesman on finance Dr Peter Phillips did not address some critical issues.
William Mahfood, managing director of Wisynco Trading, said the hour-long debate last Thursday night offered very little substance.
Observer chairman Gordon ‘Butch’ Stewart gestures while making a point at the breakfast of business leaders he hosted at the newspaper last Friday.(Photos: Michael Gordon)
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"I was disturbed because you have two proposed ministers of finance and one will be the finance minister after December 29, and I was really upset that there was very little substance, because what I saw was a tracing match," he said at a breakfast of business owners at the Observer head office in Kingston on Friday.
The debate, he said, was devoid of tax reform proposals, proposals for job creation and investments, arguing that this was what he would have wanted to hear.
According to Mahfood, business is tight, even with a stable economy. "I think there is pressure coming and some of the indicators, for example the NIR has gone down by about $600 million in the last three months, and that is in order to support the stability and it's an expense and effort that as a country I don't think we can afford," he said.
Mahfood said Jamaica cannot continue to borrow, but must tailor its expenditure to the revenues. The Government, he said, should have identified a policy of complete fiscal prudence and remove any fiscal over-expenditure, then put in place real belt-tightening measures.
"What was needed was four years of just complete cuts to bring the country to a position where we are spending what we are earning rather than continuous borrowing," Mahfood said.
Observer chairman Gordon 'Butch' Stewart, who hosted the breakfast, said his disappointment with the debate was that no one addressed the importance of export which, he said, is the way forward for the country to earn its way out of financial problems.
"If you want to live off what you already have, fine. But if you want to expand the source of money, then surely you have to discuss the export side of it, and that was my disappointment with debate," he said.
"Nobody addressed the subject of export as the real source of income and expanding the economy," Stewart added.
Stewart, however, noted that both debaters addressed the need to widen the tax net and this is very important.
"Where there is a big problem, and I think both potential ministers addressed it, is that you have to increase the tax net because what you have now is a big focus on collecting tax from a few organisations," he said.
Michael Ammar Snr said he was disappointed that both debaters placed such emphasis on renegotiating the International Monetary Fund (IMF) agreement. "All they were interested in is what you have done is wrong so we are going to renegotiate the IMF," he said.
He said there was no emphasis on growing the economy and how exactly this would be done. Instead, he said the debate was used by both parties to level criticisms at each other.
"I have said all along that nobody should be elected to Parliament unless they have been in business, because most of who are in Parliament have no business sense and therefore there is no hope," he said.
Businesswoman Audrey Hinchcliffe included the first debate two Saturdays ago between the young people in both the JLP and PNP in her analysis, saying that they provided no new information and were not convincing.
"Listening to the debate I just say I want to catch a plane and leave the country until after the election, because the new and different that is going to come from the youth we saw the examples the other night, and last night (Friday) was no different, she said.
"If I were contemplating going out there to vote I heard absolutely nothing that would cause me to go out there and vote," she added.
Former member of parliament of the ruling Jamaica Labour Party Douglas Vaz said "the debate didn't give any contribution towards the strategy of how to grow, how to encourage, how to stimulate. Instead, everything to me was very negative and non-productive".
Vaz said there was no presentation of a clear way forward.
Read more: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/...#ixzz1gwI2lvIJ
Sunday, December 18, 2011
A number of Jamaica's senior business leaders have expressed disappointment that the national debate between Finance Minister Audley Shaw and Opposition spokesman on finance Dr Peter Phillips did not address some critical issues.
William Mahfood, managing director of Wisynco Trading, said the hour-long debate last Thursday night offered very little substance.
Observer chairman Gordon ‘Butch’ Stewart gestures while making a point at the breakfast of business leaders he hosted at the newspaper last Friday.(Photos: Michael Gordon) 1/3 "I was disturbed because you have two proposed ministers of finance and one will be the finance minister after December 29, and I was really upset that there was very little substance, because what I saw was a tracing match," he said at a breakfast of business owners at the Observer head office in Kingston on Friday.
The debate, he said, was devoid of tax reform proposals, proposals for job creation and investments, arguing that this was what he would have wanted to hear.
According to Mahfood, business is tight, even with a stable economy. "I think there is pressure coming and some of the indicators, for example the NIR has gone down by about $600 million in the last three months, and that is in order to support the stability and it's an expense and effort that as a country I don't think we can afford," he said.
Mahfood said Jamaica cannot continue to borrow, but must tailor its expenditure to the revenues. The Government, he said, should have identified a policy of complete fiscal prudence and remove any fiscal over-expenditure, then put in place real belt-tightening measures.
"What was needed was four years of just complete cuts to bring the country to a position where we are spending what we are earning rather than continuous borrowing," Mahfood said.
Observer chairman Gordon 'Butch' Stewart, who hosted the breakfast, said his disappointment with the debate was that no one addressed the importance of export which, he said, is the way forward for the country to earn its way out of financial problems.
"If you want to live off what you already have, fine. But if you want to expand the source of money, then surely you have to discuss the export side of it, and that was my disappointment with debate," he said.
"Nobody addressed the subject of export as the real source of income and expanding the economy," Stewart added.
Stewart, however, noted that both debaters addressed the need to widen the tax net and this is very important.
"Where there is a big problem, and I think both potential ministers addressed it, is that you have to increase the tax net because what you have now is a big focus on collecting tax from a few organisations," he said.
Michael Ammar Snr said he was disappointed that both debaters placed such emphasis on renegotiating the International Monetary Fund (IMF) agreement. "All they were interested in is what you have done is wrong so we are going to renegotiate the IMF," he said.
He said there was no emphasis on growing the economy and how exactly this would be done. Instead, he said the debate was used by both parties to level criticisms at each other.
"I have said all along that nobody should be elected to Parliament unless they have been in business, because most of who are in Parliament have no business sense and therefore there is no hope," he said.
Businesswoman Audrey Hinchcliffe included the first debate two Saturdays ago between the young people in both the JLP and PNP in her analysis, saying that they provided no new information and were not convincing.
"Listening to the debate I just say I want to catch a plane and leave the country until after the election, because the new and different that is going to come from the youth we saw the examples the other night, and last night (Friday) was no different, she said.
"If I were contemplating going out there to vote I heard absolutely nothing that would cause me to go out there and vote," she added.
Former member of parliament of the ruling Jamaica Labour Party Douglas Vaz said "the debate didn't give any contribution towards the strategy of how to grow, how to encourage, how to stimulate. Instead, everything to me was very negative and non-productive".
Vaz said there was no presentation of a clear way forward.
Read more: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/...#ixzz1gwI2lvIJ
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