Wanted: development czar for Jamaica

Julian 'Jingles' Reynolds,  Guest Columnist

It is with some reservation that I welcome the new administration elected by the Jamaican people to lead their way for the next five years. While there are many positives to point to in the People’s National Party’s victory, the one factor that many consider as vital to the country’s future, development, is not highlighted in the new Cabinet.

Growth and development are what Jamaicans have indicated as most important to them in this epoch. And while the former Jamaica Labour Party administration made a few positive moves that reflected a path to growth, such as the Jamaica Debt Exchange, the standard of living of the average citizen has not improved. Unemployment and crime remain unacceptably high, and education and training must be vigilantly addressed for there to be progress.

In several articles, particularly over the last 25 years, I have referred to Jamaica’s failure in realising its true potential to a failure of leadership, lack of vision and inability to execute. In articles appearing in three of Jamaica’s leading newspapers, I have presented a Develop Jamaica Initiative that can contribute significantly to the country’s growth and development.

My criticisms and suggestions are grounded in experience, having been fortunate to have gathered first-hand knowledge functioning in sectors that impact both the Jamaican and American economies.

My principal involvements have been in the distribution of Jamaican food products in America, incorporating agro-industry and agriculture, film and television production, the music business, concert promotion and quarrying.

I have been a member and consultant with one of the most respected and influential minority-and woman-owned business organisations in America, the National Minority Business Council, Inc, for some three decades.

This has involved me in the planning and administration of several trade missions from the United States to Jamaica, several Caribbean countries, the United Kingdom and Africa, working with US federal, state and city officials, Fortune 500 corporations, small and medium-size businesses, and with Jamaican government officials and members of the private sector and university.
On leaving Kingston College, I went to work at one of the greatest ‘universities’ there is, The Gleaner Company, and was privileged to learn from great journalists and human beings such as Theodore Sealy, Ferdie Williams, Jack Anderson, Barbara Gloudon, Sylvia Lee, Calvin Bowen and Raymond Sharpe.

When the Develop Jamaica Initiative was presented to the P.J. Patterson administration, meeting at Jamaica House, I was informed that the debt burden of the country would not afford for Government to raise US$200 million for development. It was, and remains, to me, incongruous that a Government can borrow money to pay debts, but not to stimulate the economy.
increase production

It is acknowledged by all that Jamaica’s only way forward is to increase production in all sectors in order to increase exports and earn more foreign exchange, drive import substitution and improve the balance-of-payments deficit. There is absolutely no other way to progress.

The logical thinking is to prioritise growth, development, production and productivity. In a prior article, I had suggested that the Government must make ‘produce or die’ its mantra. In schools, all media, billboards and posters plastered on every corner in every village, this mantra must be displayed. The Government should not just be a facilitator, but the US$200 million proposed to drive production is intended for the State establishing private-public sector partnerships, making capital available and affordable for businesses to grow the economy.

From my experience, the biggest obstacle to growth and development is access to affordable capital. And if this is not addressed fully by the Jamaican Government, local financial institutions and multilateral organisations, then everything else is an exercise in futility, and serves only to hold the country indebted and underdeveloped. I share two examples.

In 1974-1975, my partners and I presented a proposal to establish an annual two-day event with international horse racing and a reggae festival to attract thousands of visitors from around the world to Jamaica. At the time, we were engaged in two lines of business in America, food distribution and entertainment, banking with two New York institutions, First National City Bank (now Citibank) and Bankers Trust.

When our proposal was presented to our bankers seeking financing, we were informed that though “exciting and very interesting”, the timing was bad, as the United States government and banking sector were about to name Jamaica as an unfriendly state because of its too-close ties to Fidel Castro. We were encouraged to take the same concept to another Caribbean country, “like Trinidad”.

We turned to the Michael Manley administration that was acquiring Barclays Bank, renaming it National Commercial Bank. The Manley administration welcomed our efforts and meetings were arranged with managers at the new Jamaican-controlled bank. But the scope and innovativeness of the project, and the creative type of financing we were proposing that required Government’s involvement both as equity partner and lender, was not grasped by the bank’s management, and it died.

When the Jamaica Labour Party, led by Edward Seaga, became the Government in 1980, we again informed them of our existence in the diaspora and our business model to stimulate the Jamaican economy. Mr Seaga responded, saying the situation they inherited was so bad that nothing could be addressed along the lines we were pursuing.

In the 1980s, Jamaica had four boxers holding world titles, Simon Brown, Trevor Berbick, Mike McCallum, and Lloyd Honeyghan fighting as a Britisher. Brown, holding titles in three class divisions, was rated at the height of his career as, pound-for-pound, the best fighter of his time. Jamaica had accomplished a feat that only the US had done.

My company again tried, unsuccessfully, to seek financing from Jamaican institutions to hold a two-day event, combining Jamaica’s boxing prowess and music, which at the time had Third World, Toots and the Maytals, Peter Tosh, Jimmy Cliff, Burning Spear and Black Uhuru at the top of the music world, and the American group with Jamaican roots, Salt-n-Pepa, topping world charts.

Despite the UNDP/UNCTAD Creative Economy Report of 2010, citing the role for creative industries in developing economies, Jamaica featured for its reggae music, none of the previous administrations gave much attention to this area. Journalists, most recently Clyde McKenzie, and Charles Campbell, and others in the music business have pointed to the importance of entertainment in growing the economy.

Reggae Sunsplash, conceived by young Jamaicans, was the first festival to promote reggae internationally, but struggled for 19 years, staging the event in Montego Bay without any financial support from the Jamaican Government, banks or private sector.

The present administration has moved in the right direction by making entertainment share Cabinet ministry with tourism. The entertainment industry, for years, has been among the top 10 biggest net export earners for the American economy, serving also in promoting American democracy through culture. The new PNP administration would send a very strong signal if it included in its policy planning for the tourism and entertainment industry people of known experience in the entertainment industry, like Junior Lincoln, Andrea Davis, Steve Golding and Donovan Germain.

The PNP must also be commended for its Jamaica Emergency Employment Programme (JEEP), which is a good initial step in addressing unemployment, but this is not a sustainable, long-term programme properly financed to make significant impact on the economy.

What Jamaica requires now is a strategy that provides entrepreneurs with financing and supporting resources to grow businesses that will reduce unemployment, drive export, and create wealth. Administered by a development czar with a highly experienced staff which answers to a body comprising parliamentarians and representatives of the private sector, to provide capital inflows of equity and low-interest loans, management, technical and marketing expertise to make Jamaica’s outputs globally competitive.

This czar must have the experience, vision, passion, focus, respect of the people and ability to work with all parties to galvanise the productive sectors to achieve the targets set by Parliament. I have identified people that are capable of providing the leadership required, such as Claude Clarke, Douglas Orane, Dr Rosalea Hamilton, Noel Hylton and Ambassador Audrey Marks.

All sectors can participate for accessing resources, but priority should be given to those with greatest potential: alternative energy, agriculture and agro-processing, the leisure industries (entertainment, sports, tourism attractions, and gaming) and research and development.

In order to have sustained economic growth and development, the Government must give more support to Jamaican entrepreneurs and projects, as it does to international companies and the investment they come with. Financing under this initiative is to be accessed through the PC Banks, credit unions and equity market. Conventional financing facilities, namely commercial banks, Development Bank of Jamaica, and the EXIM Bank, would participate if they can apply a less traditional, less bureaucratic way of doing business. The growth and development initiative calls for fresh, innovative and proactive approaches driven by the mantra, ‘Produce or Die’.

Julian ‘Jingles’ Reynolds is a writer, filmmaker and entrepreneur with 45 years experience operating in Jamaica and the United States. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and fiwipro@yahoo.com