牙买加人民民族党副总书记 温斯沃思·斯凯弗理

牙买加人民民族党副总书记 温斯沃思·斯凯弗理

Inaugural Forum of the Political Parties of China, Latin America and the Caribbean. “Innovation. Development, Cooperation and Future – Ways to Cope with Common Challenges.

Paths of Development

December 2015

It is indeed a pleasure and an honour to share our thoughts at this forum on this timely and relevant topic: “Paths of Development”, on behalf of the Peoples National Party of Jamaica at this very important Inaugural Forum of the political parties of China, Latin America and the Caribbean, under the theme “Innovation, Development, Cooperation and Future- Ways to Cope with Common Challenges.  Delegates, all of us here today are bound by common experiences, similar political philosophy, and common social and economic challenges as we seek to advance the developmental agenda for all our people. Therefore cooperation, sharing of best practices and unity of purpose is indeed paramount if we are to overcome these hurdles and overcome we must. Our political movement The Peoples National Party in Jamaica remains one that is still rooted in the principles of democratic socialism, as we seek to work for the promotion and advancement of the economic, social and cultural progress of our country, Jamaica land we love. This must be the vision of all of us within this bloc of nations here today.

In this regard we continue as a movement in government,to promote the interest of our people as a whole by the organization of Jamaica into a country of small settlers, farmers and workers from various professional groups and the development of the industrial, social and other services necessary for the maintenance of such a social structure, as we seek to make Jamaica the place to live, raise families and do business. Our party in mapping out the various paths of development continues to cooperate with states within the Caricom and Latin America, the commonwealth and indeed word wide, such as China as we seek to promote and enhance the development agenda in order to gain a higher standard of social and economic life for all our people. The traditional path to development has been embedded in Agriculture, with traditional crops, king among them sugar cane and banana and then later the bauxite industry.  Such paths resulted in differences in long-run paths of development within Jamaica and as a result led to significant differences in inequality in opportunities, wealth creation and income disparity among our people from the period of the early 20th century and after independence in 1962. Ladies and gentlemen, it is the stark contrasts in such degree of inequality in wealth, human capital, and political power which accounted for how our fundamental economic institutions evolved over time and the level of underdevelopment that has and is still plaguing many nations within our region. It can be argued, moreover, that it is the roots of these disparities and the extentof the inequalities which has resulted in the indifferences in the quality of life among our people and the required development across the nation. It can therefore be further argued that it is these initial factors that have chanted our paths to development or lack thereof, dating back to slavery as well as the era of European colonization. Many of us here today can relate to similar experiences and approaches. If we should undertake comparative studies of suffrage, public land distribution, health care and schooling policies, we would come across findings illustrating systematic patterns by which societies including ours developed extreme inequality in the population and therefore promote povertyand underdevelopment. Let me hasten to add, while some among our people flourish during this period, the masses were unemployed and those who were employed had low wages and subjected to poor working conditions.

The decade of the 1960s thou characterized by relatively high economic growth was filled with many social ills and lack of opportunities for the masses. Former Prime Minister and President of the Peoples National Party Rt Hon.Michael Manley during his government of the 1970s led the most revolutionary social policies which transformed the development path of Jamaica and elevated the masses up the social ladder and their rightful place within the economic and social fabric of   the nation.

His vision of Land distribution to the landless, housing development, self-reliance, eat what we grow, free education, promoting quality health care starting from the community level, greater focus on local government, championing women’s rights and liberty and the rights of the child were all transformational paths of development that were taken by a Peoples National Party government during that period which sought to bring about sustainable development to our nation and providing a quality society for all. These critical programmes were all supported by the appropriate legislative support so as to make the implementation process effective while reducing unnecessarybureaucratic structure. Within this era along the paths of development of the Jamaican society, in which the aim was to create a more equalitarian state, the governance framework and public education as well as consultation with the people were absolutely vital in providing the support arms needed to make these development paths relevant, worthwhile and achievable.

As we progress through the 1980s, to the 90s into contemporary Jamaica, the challenges of structural adjustments remains real and daunting as we seek to achieve sustainable economic growth in order to bring about the required development. Along this path, job creation for our people remains a fundamental objective, and indeed I may say for all of us nation states here today.

Today in 2015 Jamaica  I can therefore say“the struggle continues” as we chant the current paths of development,  in this respect we need to reflect and learn our lessons from the past so as to achieve the goals of today’s Jamaica and make them sustainable. Therefore we must first understand what the objective of development is today. In our view, development is much more than economic growth, or even increase in per capita GDP, but means the general improvement in opportunities and standard of living of the average citizen, which can be summed up in the Jamaica 2030 vision as "the place to live, work, and raise families". If we can achieve this vision for the average person, not just in Jamaica but worldwide and more so for the people within the states that are part of this forum here today, then we can truly say that we have developed as a country, a region, a bloc of nations and clearly along a path of true development.

Once we have defined that vision,we need to assess whether we are there, and if not then what is preventing us from getting there. In other words, if we understand where the finish line is, what are our objectives, where we are in the race, are we 200 metres in a 400 metre race? We need to determine what are the factors preventing us from finishing the race, so we can be in a better position to remove the obstacles. I am confident that once this is done then we will be in a better position to advance the development agenda.  This however assumes that as a nation, a region we possess the capacity to do a 400 metre run instead of a 200 metre run, that means we have truly identified our objectives and have set out to achieve them along the paths of development in the 21st century world. Along the current paths of development we need to clearly define our competitive advantages and what value can we realistically have?

So ladies ad gentlemen, when I look at our nation, Jamaica today, I think that we have a great potential to be much better  than we are doing today in terms of Tourism, Agriculture, ICT, Energy,  Construction and Manufacturing. I know we have the potential to achieve much higher economic growth, far greater than the average over the last forty five years.  We need to reflect on the fact that we have the capacity, the people and required natural resources to do it. So the question is what is stopping us from doing it? Given that we have an excellent brand, athletes, more accepted music, and we are very much interlinked with the global marketplace today than previously?

This leads us to the question then, if we are capable of achieving greater economic and sustainable growth, then what prevents us from doing so?

 In answering this question, the first thing to do is to have an understanding as to  what are the drivers that will cause us to grow as a higher rate with greater acceleration, because even if we remove the obstacles and we do not empower the drivers of growth then we will still not have the growth. For example, if I provide a clear path for a car but not have a working battery in the car then even with the path cleared the car still won't be able to go; simply because it may have been sitting in a still position so long that the battery is dead.

So while removing the obstacles we must ensure that the engine of growth is ready to go.  We have to find out what is required for that growth engine to go.  We must ask ourselves what are the roles of each stakeholder groups in this quest for increase growth in a free market enterprise and how can the private sector facilitate such or better yet, can they? Also critical to this new paradigm is the role of the state in driving the growth agenda.

Ladies and gentlemen, along this  path of development , the question is, what do we have to do to make people feel safe to risk their hard earned savings, which is what will result in growth. In other words, what would motivate them to have the confidence to invest money that otherwise could have gone to provide for their family, and in particular future income, or pension? The fact is that this is the decision that many entrepreneurs face, and it is therefore not a matter of just saying that some of the obstacles are being removed so now the private sector must invest, as much of the "abstract" private sector, many persons love to speak of are ordinary individuals who take extraordinary risks, which amounts to a gamble of their family's well-being.

This speaks to two requirements for development. First, we must improve the "doing business" environment for investment and income growth (economic growth). Second, we must improve the discipline of enforcing legislation and justice for social development. When these two things come together, then what we will see is development, as opposed to just improving social justice or growth separately.

 As we move along the paths of development, within the Jamaican context and indeed other nation state here today with similar realities, the question is what are the impediments to increased investment and employment, and similarly, the impediments to social equity and justice?  Please note ladies and gentlemen, that social equity and justice does not mean welfare only or distributing capital to persons who are unproductive, but rather, it means providing equal and available opportunity to all irrespective of social or income standing.

 What are the recommendations as we seek solutions to development?

Firstly, we need to focus our efforts on creating a "doing business" environment that encourages investments and employment, particularly in export industries. Secondly, we need to create a social environment where everyone has the same opportunity and will succeed based on talent and productivity.

These inhibitors include (i) an efficient and accountable public sector bureaucracy; (ii) ease of paying taxes and greater tax compliance to reduce tax burden across the board; (iii) increased societal discipline and reduced incidence of crime; (iv) lower energy costs; and (v) improved citizen-police relations.

If we remove these obstacles, in addition to the reforms under the IMF programme that is now taking place in our nation, we are confident that the results will be increased business and consumer confidence leading to increased consumer spending and investments. This will increase employment which will lead to increase production and exports, import substitution which will increase income levels and increased fiscal revenues. This will lead to a continuous cycle each time leading to expanded growth and developmental opportunities for all our people as they seek to enjoy the “good life”.

Therefore effective removal the inhibitors to growth will be the exploitation of our best talent and most productive resources as a people within this region with similar circumstances. However let me quick to add that for this to lead to the required sustainable development we must seek to empower all our people coupled with a clear focus on the social agenda at all times.

Ladies and gentlemen, I am confident that as a people we have the skill set, the innovative and creative spirit as well as our critical thinking skills to chant, implement and evaluate the appropriate paths of development to provide the quality society for all our people as we seek to enhance progressive policies to move our people from poverty to prosperity. Our people deserve nothing less. Thank you ladies and gentlemen. God bless you all.