Use Chinese cash for repairs

Prime Minster Bruce Golding has made it clear that the damage caused by rains from Tropical Storm Nicole last week will further stretch an already-tight Budget, in a circumstance whereby the Government already has little fiscal space within which to manoeuvre.

Already, the finance minister, Mr Audley Shaw, and his key technocrats are in Washington talking to the International Monetary Fund about adjusting targets under Jamaica's US$1.27-billion standby loan agreement with the fund. Whatever the outcome of those discussions, the Government will have difficulty repairing the infrastructure and meeting its other obligations.

It is, however, not without some options. It should divert some of the money from the US$400 million, five-year road-development loan from China to deal with emergency repairs.

It must also recalibrate priorities, including scaling back show projects like the grandiose US$65-million, four-lane road on the Palisadoes strip.

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