Tweet
JLP comes out on top in debate on the economy 
It was a vigourous debate Friday night between Finance Minister, Dr. Omar Davies and his Opposition counterpart, Audley Shaw.
There was no letting up during the 90 minute event as both men battled it out on topics ranging from the state of the economy to the financial sector crisis of the 1990's.
But it was on the issue of the Jamaica Labour Party's (JLP) Election Promises that had both men locking horns.
Dr. Davies challenged Mr. Shaw to explain how the proposed plans and programmes will be financed.
"The cost is something that is going to be phased. For instance the $2.5 billion for health and education; that will start in September come September morning. The constituency development fund is $9 billion that starts in April, the new fiscal year next year," said Mr. Shaw.
"And that is not going to be new money, that is going to be a reallocation of existing funds, for example money from the Ministry of Works, instead of Richard Azan having $6 billion to dole out, victimize and put it where he wants to put it is going to be distributed more equitably across the constituencies," he continued.
And during the last few minutes of the debate Dr. Davies was required to justify why the People's National Party (PNP) deserves another term to lead the economy.
"In terms of targets it is this administration and me in my capacity as Minister of Finance started the process of publishing my targets and say judge us by those targets that's when you started understanding the whole nature of an economic programme in which you would assess what the targets are," said Dr. Davies.
"Yes we have missed targets, we are human but we have made many. We have made targets, we have exceeded NIF target, last year we exceeded the inflation target, why don't you speak to that," he continued.
In the meantime, two financial analysts have declared Audley Shaw the winners of Friday night's debate.
John Jackson says Mr. Shaw was more articulate in his presentation and this gave him a slight edge over Dr. Davies.
"If I were to choose a winner I would have to say Audley Shaw won the debate. I don't think there is a substantial lead he would have had in terms of presentation," said Mr. Jackson.
Orville Johnson says Dr. Davies lost points for failing to properly respond to questions posed by the panelists:
"I would have to give an edge to Audley Shaw in so far as I found Dr. Davies a bit defensive even if he had good points to come across," said Mr. Johnson.
"I found that Audley Shaw was more forceful in putting his arguments together my overall disappointment was that I don't think many of the questions were sufficiently pointed from a financial point of view to pin both parties down to the kind of response so that we could get the issues out in the open," he continued.
It was a vigourous debate Friday night between Finance Minister, Dr. Omar Davies and his Opposition counterpart, Audley Shaw. There was no letting up during the 90 minute event as both men battled it out on topics ranging from the state of the economy to the financial sector crisis of the 1990's.
But it was on the issue of the Jamaica Labour Party's (JLP) Election Promises that had both men locking horns.
Dr. Davies challenged Mr. Shaw to explain how the proposed plans and programmes will be financed.
"The cost is something that is going to be phased. For instance the $2.5 billion for health and education; that will start in September come September morning. The constituency development fund is $9 billion that starts in April, the new fiscal year next year," said Mr. Shaw.
"And that is not going to be new money, that is going to be a reallocation of existing funds, for example money from the Ministry of Works, instead of Richard Azan having $6 billion to dole out, victimize and put it where he wants to put it is going to be distributed more equitably across the constituencies," he continued.
And during the last few minutes of the debate Dr. Davies was required to justify why the People's National Party (PNP) deserves another term to lead the economy.
"In terms of targets it is this administration and me in my capacity as Minister of Finance started the process of publishing my targets and say judge us by those targets that's when you started understanding the whole nature of an economic programme in which you would assess what the targets are," said Dr. Davies.
"Yes we have missed targets, we are human but we have made many. We have made targets, we have exceeded NIF target, last year we exceeded the inflation target, why don't you speak to that," he continued.
In the meantime, two financial analysts have declared Audley Shaw the winners of Friday night's debate.
John Jackson says Mr. Shaw was more articulate in his presentation and this gave him a slight edge over Dr. Davies.
"If I were to choose a winner I would have to say Audley Shaw won the debate. I don't think there is a substantial lead he would have had in terms of presentation," said Mr. Jackson.
Orville Johnson says Dr. Davies lost points for failing to properly respond to questions posed by the panelists:
"I would have to give an edge to Audley Shaw in so far as I found Dr. Davies a bit defensive even if he had good points to come across," said Mr. Johnson.
"I found that Audley Shaw was more forceful in putting his arguments together my overall disappointment was that I don't think many of the questions were sufficiently pointed from a financial point of view to pin both parties down to the kind of response so that we could get the issues out in the open," he continued.
Comment