EDITORIAL - Mr Azan's path to growth and jobs

We don't assume Gassan Azan's to be the last word on the matter. But when as successful an entrepreneur as Mr Azan speaks about obstacles on the path to investment and jobs, this newspaper takes him seriously.

So do very many Jamaicans, including, we believe, senior members of the Jamaican Government and members of the country's private sector. That is why we commend to policymakers, and others, Mr Azan's remarks last week at a luncheon of the Rotary Club of Kingston.

Mr Azan is concerned with breaking Jamaica's chronic cycle of little or no growth, and what is to be done to encourage investment and job creation.

His solutions, ranging from improving education and training to tax reform and facilitating an entrepreneurial spirit, as Mr Azan himself conceded, were not unique or particularly original. That, to us, makes this speech significant.

Put another way, Jamaica's policymakers have no cause to attempt reinventing the wheel. They know the problems, and there is consensus on the way out of the rut.

What has been lacking is the political will to take the decisions that procrastination and delay have made politically tough. However, Prime Minister Bruce Golding's declaration in his New Year's message that the focus will be on "stimulating growth and creating jobs" gives us hope of a change in attitude.

In that regard, we expect the administration to move on proposals on which there is already agreement. Some of these were highlighted by Mr Azan in last week's speech.

Inefficient tax arrangements

Take the matter of taxation. Jamaican governments have, over many years, commissioned reports and studies. They have talked. All of these have arrived at the same conclusion: that our tax arrangements are inefficient, cover too few of those who should pay, and provide a disincentive to investment and growth.

Yet we have failed to undertake com-prehensive reform, with the consequence, as Mr Azan pointed out, "that capital that should be invested in expansion, and by extension, job creation, is being taken into government revenues in a manner which has more to do with retaining political power than with developing the economy".

Added Mr Azan: "Government will have to choose between maintaining its present tax strategies and widening the tax net since it is patently clear that jobs can hardly be created or sustained at the present level of taxation on those inside the net."

He is right!

We agree with Mr Azan, too, that our Government has to do more than talk about removing bureaucratic impediments to doing business. It must actually do it.

For as the businessman said: "... There is no reason why an entrepreneur who is seeking to provide a product or a service that has little or no health, safety, or environmental issues should have to spend more than two weeks to get all the paperwork in place." Traversing Jamaica's bureaucracy usually takes months.

This will demand, as Mr Golding has promised, genuine reform of the public sector and a shift in the philosophy that inclines Jamaican administrations, as Mr Azan puts it, to believe that "borrowing is easier than facilitating economic growth".

It helps, of course, if our governments and policymakers are liberated from, as Mr Azan observes, "packaging our economic failures into political time frames".

All have been responsible. The solutions belong to the country.

The opinions on this page, except for the above, do not necessarily reflect the views of The Gleaner. To respond to a Gleaner editorial, email us: editor@gleanerjm.com or fax: 922-6223. Responses should be no longer than 400 words. Not all responses will be published.