Editorial | Hear from the Chinese garage

On its face, the recent closure of the Chinese-owned car repair garage at Ferry, St Catherine, was a straightforward case of regulatory enforcement.

The labour ministry wanted to ascertain that any Chinese employed at the facility had the appropriate work permits, and, perhaps, that they were not victims of human trafficking. The Government may have also wanted to ensure that the garage met its industrial health and safety regulations.

This saga, however, highlights questions about customer service, as well as the larger matter of productivity in the Jamaican economy that are worth revisiting.

In the few weeks it operated before its services were suspended, large crowds flocked the facility. There were nightly television images of vehicles lined up miles deep outside the garage waiting to get in, and of motorists from across the island relating how they had queued overnight, hoping its mechanics could diagnose, and fix, their problems. The common thread among clients who got access to the facility was praise for its efficiency, low prices, and overall excellent service.

In other words, Jamaicans flocked the garage not because it was Chinese, but because of the quality of service they received at an economic cost.

Put another way, in an economy where poor customer service, long wait times, and inconsistent quality are common in many sectors, the emergence of a workshop that diagnosed problems quickly, communicated clearly, and charged fairly was a breath of fresh air. Therein, this business, during its scant few weeks of operation, highlighted a national weakness in productivity. It demonstrated, too, that Jamaican consumers are ready to embrace productivity when they encounter it.

TOTAL FACTOR PRODUCTIVITY

For the past 30 years, Jamaica has faced persistently low productivity growth, especially in total factor productivity (TFP). Unlike labour productivity, which measures output per worker, TFP gauges how efficiently all inputs – labour, capital, energy, and information – are combined in production. It is the true driver of long-term growth. It underlines the critical importance of the roles of government, businesses, and labour being coordinated to drive growth and development.

Sadly, in Jamaica this process has faltered badly.

Since the 1990s, the island’s average annual GDP growth has barely reached one per cent. Countries like Vietnam, Mauritius, and the Dominican Republic have more than doubled or tripled theirs.

The reasons have been highlighted ad nauseum: lack of investment in research and development; weak innovation ecosystems; limited access to finance for scaling firms; inadequate vocational and digital skills; a business culture that often tolerates mediocrity rather than striving for excellence; and so on. The Chinese garage showed what can happen when service is organised, workflows are optimised, and customers are treated as the central focus. It did not need extensive studies, White Papers, or econometric modelling.

Of course, the Government was right to enforce standards. No economy can thrive on rule-breaking. It is, however, evident that Jamaica needs a more creative and supportive state response to enhance productivity, growth and national development. This means enforcing laws, but also doing more to facilitate enterprise; accelerating skills development; and helping local firms meet global standards.

In other words, regulatory authorities going beyond being gatekeepers to growth enablers. This involves streamlining processes, providing technical support to small businesses, and guiding informal operators into the formal economy without stifling their entrepreneurial spirit with crushing bureaucracy and taxes.

CONSIDER FRESH APPROACHES

With national elections in the offing, it is important for the political parties to consider fresh approaches to the questions of production and productivity.

For instance, policymakers – including those who hope to replace the existing ones – must begin to frame a strategy built around areas where there is national consensus as set out in Vision 2030. These could include sector-specific small and medium enterprise (SME) development, and identifying high-growth, high-employment sectors where Jamaican firms can scale up, as well as how to ramp up investments in innovation and R&D from a mere 0.1 per cent of GDP to closer to the global norm of two per cent. Without innovation, productivity stalls.

Public-private R&D partnerships must be on the agenda, as well as commercialisation grants for university research, and tax incentives for innovation – and treated as national priorities, scaling up the island’s entrepreneurial ecosystems. Too many Jamaican microenterprises remain stuck in survival mode. Business development services need to go beyond basic financial literacy.

In that regard, there is a need for effective incubators, digital platforms, export accelerators, and legal support services that help firms scale into regional and global markets.

Reskilling the labour force, too, is an issue of urgency, aligning a modernised technical and vocational education system with productivity targets in key sectors. The issue of loss of trained persons to migration needs special initiatives.

Apart from closing the Ferry garage, the industry and labour ministries might have invited the Chinese investors in to talk about how they did what they did, and how Jamaica can learn from them. Total factor productivity is not just an economists’ abstraction; it is the lifeblood of national prosperity. Without raising the TFP, no amount of infrastructure, tourism earnings, or remittances will bring the growth Jamaica seeks and needs. The Chinese automotive garage reminded Jamaica of its potential.