RICE AND PEAS; MACARONI PIE
ROASTED SAFFRON POTATOES; FRIED PLANTAIN
CREAMED POTATOES; BBQ SPARERIBS
BBQ PIG TAIL; BAKED PORK
BAKED CHICKEN; FRIED SNAPPER
FRIED STEAK FISH; GRILLED STEAK FISH
BEEF STEW; PORK STEW; FISH GRAVY
STEAMED VEGETABLES; TOSSED SALAD; COLE SLAW
April 12 is the deadline for nominations for candidates seeking to contest seats with the United National Congress (UNC). Screening of potential candidates begins on April 13. This was the news from Opposition Leader Kamla Persad Persad Bissessar yesterday, commenting on the UNC’s readiness for a general election in the face of pronouncements by Prime Minister Patrick Manning that he will soon set the date.
Persad Bissessar said executives of all constituencies have been invited to nominate candidates and that the party has already appointed a screening committee. In a media release yesterday, she also said she did not expect that the nominations will compromise the ongoing unity talks between opposition parties.
She said she will today begin ’stepping up’ talks with other opposition parties, to continue working on a unified front and that a ’Statement of Principles’ has been prepared to ensure sustained unity.
’I am confident that a lasting formula for unity will be achieved. It will meet the expectations of the people,’ she promised, adding: ’Prime Minister Manning is now caught in ’no man’s land’. He has the albatross of the Uff Commission around his neck. He faces unparalleled revolt from the party faithful across the country, as well as from some members of his cabinet. It is the first time that a sitting Prime Minister has been booed and jeered on walkabouts even in traditional hardcore PNM areas.
’Mr Manning cannot fulfill his promises because after a period of wastage, the money is finished. He is therefore trying to hold an election before the financial collapse is made public.
’That is the reason for promising Laventille $300 million when they abandoned this area for the past eight years. That is the reason for the renewed promises of health facilities. These are promises made several years ago by this same government but which they failed to keep when the Government was benefiting from high revenues from international energy prices.’
Persad-Bissessar, in a telephone interview with the Sunday Express, also called on the police and Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Roger Gaspard, to clarify whether the State has access to Calder Hart, former chairman of the Urban Development Company of Trinidad and Tobago (UDeCOTT).
She was asked to comment on statements Thursday by Attorney General John Jeremie, that while the State has no reason to seek out Hart at this time, he is within easy reach should the need arise.
The UNC political leader said that the people actively involved in the matter should speak up.
’There seem to be conflicting views,’ Persad-Bissessar said, adding: ’Maybe the time has come for the Commissioner of Police to make a statement. The Attorney General is not the investigating arm and it is not sufficient for the AG to make pronunciations on criminal matters. The DPP and the police should clarify the issue.’
The Opposition Leader claimed Jeremie’s words ’cannot be relied upon’.
’We cannot be comforted by his statements,’ she said.
Persad-Bissessar also questioned the nature of the conversation that Prime Minister Patrick Manning had with Hart before he, Hart, left the country.
’There is a criminal offence in this country and that is the crime of ’tipping-off’. Therefore, serious questions arise as to whether the conversation Manning had with Hart may constitute tipping-off. It was, after all, shortly after that conversation that Hart disappeared,’ she said. (Trinidad Express)
Rickie Ramdass rickie.ramdass@trinidadexpress.com
FORMER government minister Firzgerald Hinds said he is fearful that the People’s National Movement (PNM) would lose the next general election should one be called any time soon.
Hinds made the statement while speaking to reporters during the passing-out parade for 334 Defence Force recruits in Chaguaramas yesterday. He said he was not sure if the PNM was politically stronger at this present time than it was at the last general election in November 2007.
This among other issues, he said, was a cause for concern if another general election was called in the near future.
’One, of course, is the fact that the Opposition has clearly demonstrated that it will not be going into a three-way fight as we did and benefited from on the last occasion but rather it would be a straight one-on-one fight.
’Of course, the PNM is not afraid of any of that, but it changes the whole political equation from 2007. … I always think the PNM has a great chance and I am confident that the PNM will always prevail, but confident that I am, I would like to see us fight on a stronger footing, and I don’t know if we are as strong as we could ordinarily be,’ he said.
Prime Minister Patrick Manning’s last week said he will announce a date for the elections soon. A memorandum to constituency secretaries has also been sent out from PNM general secretary Martin Joseph, dated March 29, advising that nominations of candidates must be submitted no later than Tuesday.
In order to meet the deadline certain procedures normal to the nomination process have been waived, the memo stated. These are requirements to invite all members by written circular to attend the meeting at which the nomination of persons as candidates is scheduled to take place and to ’give to members at least seven days notice for the meeting at which the nomination of members as candidates will take place’.
Meanwhile, speculation continues as to what will be the date of the general election. Rumours ran like bush fires through the country yesterday that Prime Minister Patrick Manning had told PNMites the date was … anybody’s guess. PNM sources said the Prime Minister said, on one of his recent walkabouts with some government ministers, that the election will be held on May 24. Others said that he said at the end of May or early June, and even October was mentioned, but May 17, and May 24 emerged as favourite dates among the speculators.
With the date still to be announced by the Prime Minister, however, surprises are already piling in-reports are Government Senator Laurel Lezama has been asked by members of the PNM’s Arima constituency to consider a nomination for candidacy against Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives and the current MP for Arima, Pennelope Beckles.
Lezama is expected to be nominated tomorrow, sources said. Lezama shot into the media spotlight last November when it was revealed that she received a $300,000 grant from the Ministry of Culture and Gender Affairs for the pursuit of a Bachelor’s degree in Law and Politics from the University of Westminster Regents Campus in London in 2005 and 2006.
At 28, Lezama is the youngest Senator in Parliament. She is the co-ordinator for the Couva South constituency which, like San Fernando East, recently passed a motion expressing full confidence in Prime Minister Manning.
The PNM’s Toco/Manzanilla constituency has also received three other nominations for candidacy apart from incumbent MP Indra Sinanan Ojah-Maharaj. They are Alderman Ronald Boynes, chairman of the Sangre Grande Regional Corporation (SGRC) and the brother of former PNM sport minister Roger Boynes; businessman Anil Juteram, former UNC candidate who served as a temporary senator (Opposition) and Eric ’Pink Panther’ Taylor, president of the Trinbago Unified Calypsonians’ Association (TUCO). (Trinidad Express)
-With reporting by Sunday News Desk
Tony Becca
Chanderpaul - File Photo
Tony Becca, Contributor
The West Indies ran out 4-1 victors over Zimbabwe in the one-day internationals recently, and with so many people, including the coach and the captain, patting the players on the back and saying “well done”, I was almost embarrassed.
After failing to reach 100 runs and losing the Twenty20 match, after losing the first one-day international and scraping through to win the second, and after depending so much on Chris Gayle and Shivnarine Chanderpaul to pull them through, the victory, to me, was no big thing.
The victory was not against Australia, it was not against South Africa, it was against India, and it was not against England.
The victory was against Zimbabwe, and a weak Zimbabwe at that.
For people like the coach and the captain of the team to behave, therefore, as if the West Indies had just recovered brilliantly and knocked off a good team is enough to make those really interested in West Indies cricket stand up and take note.
Jamaica won the recently concluded regional four-day competition for the third time in a row and, as a Jamaican, I am a happy man.
As a West Indian, however, I am not a happy man. In fact, as a West Indian, I am deeply concerned about the state of West Indies cricket.
There is not one West Indies batsman with an average above 50 in Test cricket and only one in first-class cricket, and apart from Shivnarine Chanderpaul, with 48.70 in Test cricket and 54.24 in first-class cricket, only two other West Indies batsmen touch 40 in Test cricket and three others in first-class cricket.
Against that, teams like Australia and India have a number of batsmen averaging beyond 50 in Test cricket and in first-class cricket while others, the likes of England, South Africa, and even Pakistan, have batsmen in the 50s in Test cricket and many more in the 40s in first-class cricket than the West Indies.
The West Indies batsmen, the majority of them, are stuck in the 20s and the 30s, in both Test and first-class cricket.
Top team score
During this past season, for example, the top team score was 462, only four times did a team score more than 400 runs in an innings, and with teams getting past 300 runs only seven times and past 200 only 31 times, there were 22 totals under 200 runs, including an embarrassing 65 by the Combined Campuses and Colleges against the Leeward Islands.
On top of that, while the bowlers, as good as their figures looked, could not get out the likes of Chanderpaul and Ramnaresh Sarwan, Denesh Ramdin and Wavell Hinds in the few matches those batsmen played, the batsmen, and especially so the young, promising ones, could hardly score a run.
Something is wrong, and something needs to be done about it.
With all the talk about marketing and promotion, this past season was a disappointment, and it was disappointing in every aspect, on and off the field.
In coming up with a short tournament, a tournament in which each team played only six matches and one in which six of the seven teams met in one country and played one round of three matches in that country over the same four days, Dr Ernest Hilaire, the chief executive officer of the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB), promised a tough and hard competition which would be enjoyed by the fans.
With so many players missing either because they were on tour with the West Indies team or because they were injured, the tournament was neither tough nor hard; with three matches taking place in one country at the same time and, in many cases, with only a handful of fans on the ground, the people did not support the teams.
From reports, the day/night matches were fairly successful, but not so the idea of playing three matches in one country at the same time in these small islands, not so the idea of a team, with the exception of Barbados, playing one home match throughout the tournament, and with the facilities and the pitches so poor at so many venues, not so the idea of playing so many matches, 14 out of 21, on grounds where the facilities, including the pitches, were below par, some of them way below par.
Those in the West Indies who are not prepared to pat themselves on the back after fighting to defeat a team like Zimbabwe need to get up, stand up, and fight for West Indies cricket; those who are not prepared to be like a one-eyed man in a blind man’s country need to get up, stand up, and fight for West Indies cricket; and those who would like to see West Indies cricket return to its former days, or as near to them as possible, had better get up, stand up, and fight.
Help from the board
They need to see to it that the clubs get some help from the WICB so that they can provide proper facilities, including good pitches, and guidance, they need to see to it that the territories place some real emphasis on producing good cricketers.
More important, however, they need to get back into the game people who know the game, people who are interested in the development of the game, people who are interested in the development of the players and who can help the players in their development, people who can administer, and equally as important, people who can select players.
Probably, however, the most important thing in West Indies cricket is the loyalty of the players, and those who love West Indies cricket probably need to set up a system whereby they can groom players to represent the West Indies.
Apart from the fact that the players should possess talent and ability, the people probably need to insist, as much as they can, that only those players who love West Indies cricket, those players who respect the people of the West Indies, should be honoured by being selected to represent the West Indies.
Every man has a duty to provide for himself and his family, every man has a right to choose in the interest of himself and his family, and no one should fault a man for his choice in fulfilling his duty.
The WICB, however, also has a duty to protect West Indies cricket, and in ensuring that it does its duty, the board has a right to select those it believes will represent the people fully and unconditionally.
It seems, however, that while the players and their association want to exercise their choice, they do not want the board to exercise its discretion.
It appears that the players and the Players’ Association want to do what they want to do, and the board, the body elected to administer West Indies cricket in the interest of West Indies cricket, should just sit aside and allow them to do whatever they want to do in their own interest. (Jamaica Gleaner)
Buddan
Robert Buddan, Contributor
Wykeham McNeill has characterised the way we are being governed as a “systemic failure of governance”. As Opposition spokesman on tourism, he targeted the governance of the sector as a case in point.
Up to March 24, he said, there had been no official response to the February 24 charge of the contractor general, repeated on March 4 that, (I) Minister Bartlett misled the Cabinet of Jamaica; and (2) there was no Cabinet approval for the American Airlines agreement. The contractor general had therefore asked the prime minister to advise on what steps would be taken to censure and/or hold Minister Bartlett accountable.
This matter goes to the heart of our democracy at which lies the rule of accountability. The executive is accountable to the legislature and the legislature is responsible to the electorate. Dr McNeill, a member of the legislature, was calling on the executive to be accountable.
Accountability is practised as individual ministerial responsibility (to the Cabinet), collective responsibility of the Cabinet, headed by the prime minister, to the legislature and people; and accountability to the laws as interpreted by the judiciary for breaches investigated by the contractor general and police, and tried by the courts.
On March 25, the prime minister responded to the contractor general in Parliament. On March 26, the contractor general responded, in turn, to say that the PM had confirmed that the chairman of JAMVAC had signed the controversial airlift agreement “without the approval of Cabinet”. But the prime minister’s response largely targeted John Lynch as chairman of JAMVAC almost as if to divert fault to him, justified as that might be, and away from Minister Bartlett. There was only this reference: “The accuracy of the statements in a [Cabinet] submission is the responsibility of the minister and his ministry”.
The CG would not allow this sidestepping of responsibility. His response highlighted what the PM sought to avoid that Minister Bartlett signed a submission to Cabinet that was falsely stated. The PM had indeed said that the submission ‘was incorrect’. The CG further said that Bartlett’s submission had, up to March 26, still not been amended or withdrawn and still had the force of law. Bartlett’s Cabinet submission therefore still stood as a “material misrepresentation made by a government minister to the Cabinet of the Government of Jamaica”. This now seems to me to imply collective responsibility of the Cabinet, beginning with the PM as chairman of the Cabinet, since the submission remains accepted by his Cabinet.
Sanction to expect
So, what sanction can we expect? The prime minister has only said that, “I have made it clear to the minister, the chairman and CEO of JAMVAC that there must be no recurrence.” The CG thinks the matter is grave. The PM has only warned his minister. The minister has not resigned. The PM has not fired him. The PM has not even asked the chairman of JAMVAC to resign. This is what McNeill meant about a systemic failure of governance.
When individual and collective responsibility are not exercised, there is no real accountability to Parliament and the OCG. If Minister Bartlett “purposefully misled the Cabinet” and no action is taken then Cabinet colleagues can no longer trust each other and they can make policy without Cabinet approval or Cabinet sanction.
You cannot really have Cabinet government in the constitutional or functional sense in these circumstances; and you cannot have a chairman worthy of the title of prime minister, which is a constitutional term, if he chairs a body from which he derives his executive title that is not being constitutionally run.
McNeill was right when he said, “There are rules and regulations that must be followed when handling public funds and if they (the Government) do not see the error in what has been done and how it was done, and if no one is to be held accountable, then they are doomed to repeat their mistakes again and again, at taxpayers’ expense.” And, of course, at the Constitution’s expense.
Treaty responsiblity
But the situation is worse. If we don’t sanction our own and ourselves, others will because they believe in sanctions and they will not allow us to abuse law and procedure because it will mean nothing if they hold to their end and we don’t. The Government of Jamaica-United States conflict involving intermediaries Harold Brady & Co and Manatt, Phelps and Phillips (MPP) is illustrative. The lobbying of the US government by foreigners is regarded as potentially, a security matter. It is governed by the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) that goes back to 1938. Under this act, MPP was required to register and disclose information on its activities on behalf of foreign clients. That is how we came to know about MPP’s activities on behalf of GOJ-Brady.
It might be a matter for the US Attorney General’s (US AG) Office to investigate. It should want to know if MPP violated the act by not disclosing the full extent of its activities. Did any of its representatives travel to Jamaica, meet with any member of government and receive payment? Since MPP cannot do business with a criminal, the US AG should call upon them to prove that they didn’t meet or receive payment from a wanted fugitive.
The US AG should want to investigate if there is any criminally connected violation of US anti-terrorism, money laundering, and drug trafficking laws. It should want to know if MPP is guilty of perjury by not telling the truth about its activities connected with the GOJ. There are too many unanswered questions and so much speculation that some investigation should be undertaken.
If the US AG finds any violation on Jamaica’s part, the US Justice, State, Treasury and any connected department could very well impose sanctions against members of the Jamaican executive if, say, they are found to be complicit under criminal conspiracy or any other laws. Visas could be denied. Officials could be arrested. Tourists could be prevented from coming to Jamaica. Trade could be restricted. Government would fall.
The United States government might come to the same conclusion as Dr McNeill has, that there has been a systemic failure of governance in Jamaica.
If the prime minister will not sanction his ministers, it will be taken as a sign by a foreign government that he is not committed to the rule of law, domestic and foreign. The State Department’s International Narcotics Control Strategy Report of March was harsh and would be taken into account by the US AG, should he decide to investigate.
The Constitutional responsibility
There is an entirely different approach to this whole matter of responsibility, the constitutional approach. The prime minister is already at the centre of the Coke affair. Frank Phipps, lawyer and former JLP candidate, has been interested in the constitutional structure of government for some time. He believes that this matter could cause the government to fall.
Constitutional lawyers might want to look into the role of the prime minister and whether he has used his executive power to deny the court the independence it needs under our Constitution to act in the interests of defence, public safety, public order, and public morality. Probably here too, we might find reasons to explain the systemic failure of governance.(Jamaica Gleaner)
Robert Buddan lectures in the Department of Government, UWI, Mona Campus. Email: Robert.Buddan@uwimona.edu.jm or columns@gleanerjm.com
Finance Minister Audley Shaw (left) speaks with Prime Minister Bruce Golding during the tabling of the Estimates of Expenditure in Parliament on March 25. In the background are Daryl Vaz, minister with responsibility for information, and Agriculture Minister Dr Christopher Tufton. - Ricardo Makyn/Staff Photographer
Martin Henry
Martin Henry, Contributor
In big political-economy terms, what does the Government hope to achieve from this year’s Budget? The Standing Finance Committee of Parliament, which is the whole House, has laboured in futility over the Estimates of Expenditure in the days running up to Easter.
I say in futility because parliamentary debate in our backhanded Budget process does not make any real difference in determining the expenditure and income of Government, a matter reserved in the present order of things for the executive and, more specifically, for the minister of finance, and for the prime minister, if he or she happens to be a strong and determined budgeter.
Tired parliamentarians, like us, now have a legally-enforced period of rest, the holiest period of the year for most Christians, which can be used for reflection, if not for worship. But, then, there is the option of carnival for further exertions. Others, determined to do what Jesus said was impossible, serving both God and Mammon, will juggle church and bacchanal over a busy weekend.
We should be able to look to the Throne Speech for what the Government hopes to achieve in this fiscal and legislative year. But there has been so much disjunction between throne speeches, dutifully delivered by Her Majesty’s representative as Head of State at the opening of each parliamentary year, and the reality on the ground as the year progresses that it is hard to believe the prognostications.
Four revisions
Last year the Budget was revised four times, the last just two weeks before the end of the fiscal year when an additional $31.5 billion was added. This does not inspire confidence in the Budget process, or in governance for that matter. But this has been the story of our lives and will be repeated this year. Even before the Estimates had been fully debated another $4.5 billion was tacked on.
Deep cynicism faces the process of governance. So much so that the positively radical differences between this year’s Estimate of Expenditure and others over a whole generation past have gone largely unremarked.
Perhaps for the first time in the history of independent Jamaica we have been presented with a Budget which is less than the previous year’s, nearly $100 billion or some 16 per cent less. For the first time in 13 years debt-servicing costs, at 48.5 per cent, have fallen below 50 per cent of the Budget. This is largely due to the success of the Jamaica Debt Exchange Programme which has pegged down the interest rate on the domestic debt. The adjustments required of holders of government paper, who are pretty much everybody, directly or indirectly, has not been painless and the Programme is not without its kinks.
But many of us ordinary citizens and not by any means financial analysts, believe the JDX is a critical rescue plan for the future of our country and a master political and economic stroke. A senior member of the Government has told me in personal communication that the administration is seriously concerned about not hurting the confidence and support it has been given in the JDX. If so be the case, one would have expected to see in the Budget and Throne Speech, an explicit conversion of debt relief into a national transformation programme.
Important advantages
For the first time in years, a Budget has been cast under IMF conditionalities. Elements of the media have chosen to report this as being in “the shadow of the IMF” and that the Budget was “cast in Washington and delivered in Kingston”. Whatever might be its faults and failures, the dragon IMF brings two important advantages to the Budget - low interest rates, the lowest available, short of zero-rated grants; and, second, fiscal discipline. If external fiscal supervision is necessary to get our reckless Government, in the broad sense, to behave, so be it. The lazy Parliament was even “forced” to rush through financial legislation to meet “demands from the IMF”.
The ‘groundbreaking’ Financial Investigations Division (FID) bill provides for the establishment of a department of government to be headed by a chief technical director who will advise the finance minister on policy relating to the detecting, prevention and control of financial crimes.
Leader of Government Business in the Senate, Senator Dorothy Lightbourne, told the Upper House, ” I have been advised by the Ministry of Finance that this bill has to be completed on or before the 31st of March. It is so necessary for Jamaica to meet its obligation under the requirements of the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force, of which Jamaica is a member state and also consequent IMF conditionalities.” Dilly-dallying by the Parliament had made the bill fall off the Order Paper.
In the just concluded 2009/2010 legislative year, Parliament managed to pass only 21 bills. Among those falling off the Order paper were the everlasting Charter of Rights Bill, the six anti-crime bills first tabled in December 2008, and the Corruption Prevention (Special Prosecutor) Act. Can we get the IMF interested in having these bills passed — or perhaps the US State Department?
Another landmark positive in this year’s Budget, which should not go unremarked, is the presentation, for the first time, of the accounts of ‘public bodies’ outside the mainstream civil service. These bodies, collectively, will be spending $360 billion off the regular Budget. Most of these 68 entities raise their own monies from sale of goods and services, which is nonetheless public money which should be publicly accounted for.
Why does the Government need to ‘own’ entities like Petrojam, the Port Authority, NHT or the NWC, for that matter? The UDC and the HEART Trust may be a bit more understandable in this alleged market economy, though government ownership is not, even here, an inflexible necessity.
With Government owning the NWC, it is amazing that at this time of the worse national water crisis in living memory, Mr Shaw’s diet Budget has not explicitly given top priority to water - ‘water is life’. The water crisis will not go away even with rain since population size and demand have now far outstripped capacity. The last reservoir for the Kingston Metropolitan Area was built in the 1940s and has since then lost significant capacity due to silting.
Credibility-compromising
And the Government, in the long, credibility-compromising tradition of breach of faith and promise by governments, is reneging on its honourable commitment to the Road Maintenance Fund. It is still not certain if all of the 20 per cent due to the fund from the Special Consumption Tax on fuel collected last year has been paid over. The Minister of Finance, who promised a progressively increased percentage of the SCT for the RMF has, in fact, projected $300 million less to be handed over this year. And this while contracting a road-rehabilitation debt with the Chinese Government against the RMF. Where is the IMF?
So, what does the Government hope to achieve from this year’s Budget by way of coherent policy and development objectives? The governor general, speaking on behalf of the Government in the platitudinous Throne Speech, said “the over-arching objective of the government is a return to growth - growth that is sufficient and sufficiently sustained … ” from which all kinds of wonderful results will flow - jobs, foreign-exchange earnings, pay down of the debt, development of human resources, better infrastructure, and, yes, better government.
The heavy cart is here firmly jammed in front of the ‘mawga’ horse. I am writing in the bloodstained shadow of a radio newscast that “murders continue unabated across the island”. The Gleaner last Sunday reported more than 400,000 cases piled up in “crippled courts”. What is the fundamental business of a government which, until a couple of weeks ago, was the owner of Air Jamaica and which still owns the Sugar Company of Jamaica?
The Government of Jamaica, like governments almost everywhere, thinks its primary duty is economic management. So the passage of FID bill is rushed, albeit under IMF manners, but the Charter of Rights bill has been stalled for 16 years. Growth will continue to elude us until the government of this sick country gives proper priority to its core business.
Core functions of government
The undelegateable minimal core functions of government are: The security of the state and the rights and freedoms of its citizens, the dispensing of justice, and the erection and maintenance of public infrastructure that private enterprise can’t, or won’t. Government is responsible for creating and policing the legal code and for maintaining public order so that citizens can pursue their self-interests without hurting each other’s private interests or the public interests. Critical elements of protecting the property rights of all citizens is maintaining a stable currency and controlling inflation. Growth is a by-product of private enterprise in a peaceful, equitable, secure and predictable market.
On every single one of these responsibilities, the Government of Jamaica, everlastingly chatting ’bout growth has, over the years, been a dismal failure. And this Easter Budget, does not, from what I can see, reflect any strong grasp of what a strapped government ought to be doing as top priorities. Let us pray for them.
Violence and corruption, the betrayal of sacred trust by those in authority and their accommodation of evils like garrisons, injustice and lawlessness, oppression and captivity, blatant breaches of human rights, are polluting and crippling Jamaica, land we love. Our country faces a moral crisis which is greater than any economic crisis. How to rise from the moral morass, which is stifling all our endeavours, is very worthy of reflections at Easter.(Jamaica Gleaner)
Martin Henry is a communications consultant. Feedback may be sent to medhen@gmail.com or columns@gleanerjm.com
Valerie Veira, chief executive officer of Jamaica Business Development Corporation, a state-owned business advisory and financing agency. - File Photo
The Jamaica Business Develop-ment Corporation (JBDC) is reporting a near 30 per cent increase in the number of persons seeking help to channel their entrepreneurial skills into start-ups. The agency predicts that the numbers will grow as more Jamaicans seek alternatives to scarce paid employment.
Up to late last year, the number of Jamaicans who lost their jobs since the recession was estimated at 40,000, as reported by Prime Minister Bruce Golding.
But this number could rise as firms continue to downsize and lay off staff.
Valerie Veira, chief executive officer of the JBDC, said the agency’s clients climbed to 9,000 in fiscal year 2008/09, up 28.6 per cent from the 7,000 recorded in the prior fiscal year. She foresees an even greater number of applicants.
Increase expected
“We expect it to increase this year simply because people who have been laid off will come looking for some guidance,” said Veira.
“We also go out, too, and we provide the services through other agencies.”
Veira said while the agency has not yet tallied its 2009-10 figures, she expects that the figure will climb further at the end of its fiscal year, which closed on March 31.
The JBDC not only offers technical advice on business start-up product development and crafting business plans, but for about a year, it has been offering financing.
Its new financial services unit provides assistance to ‘unbanked’ groups of micro and small businesses.
Government in February also announced an even bigger role for the agency, giving it oversight of all small-business services; but this policy is yet to be fully articulated relative to the functions that the JBDC will assume and the effect on other state agencies delivering small-business finance and other services.
Most of the jobs lost in the past two years were in the sugar sector, which is being privatised, and bauxite/alumina, whose domestic health is reliant on a vibrant world market for aluminium. Aluminium prices and demand were early casualties of the recession, forcing local miners to retrench. Some have been closed temporarily.
“Who have stood out are bauxite workers,” said Veira.
“The bauxite companies have called us to do sessions because many of the persons being laid off have expressed an interest in going into their own businesses.”
She said the current batch of would-be entrepreneurs was more inclined to go into the agro-processing industry and the wellness sector.
“We have seen a kind of upturn in the wellness sector, too. People who are doing products like handmade soaps, spa collections - body lotions, gels; those doing those kinds of feel-good products,” she said.
There is also a demand from farmers.
“Yes, farmers recognise that they are in business. They never used to think that they were in business. When you ask them what they do, they say ‘farming’, but now they realise they are in business,” Veira said. (Jamaica Gleaner)
- dionne.rose@gleanerjm.com
