Hurdles to business

Milton Samuda, the president of the Jamaica Chamber of Commerce (JCC), and Professor Rosalea Hamilton, president of the MSME Alliance, have identified the items at the top of their lists of impediments to doing business in Jamaica.

Milton Samuda

Crime:

Jamaica has one of the world's highest murder rates, with over 1,600 homicides last year for a murder rate of more than 65 per 100,000 population.

MS: This deters local and foreign investment, saps confidence, increases the cost of security and adds to the cost of production and doing business.

Corruption:

Jamaica ranks 99th of 180 countries on Transparency International's Corruption Index, and 107 out of 139 on the World Economic Forum's Global Competitive Index (GCI). The issue of corruption is constant in public discourse.

MS: Corruption, like crime, is a disincentive to investment - domestic and foreign. Graft is a financial cost to business and negatively impacts competitiveness.

Bureaucracy:

On the Global Competitive Index Jamaica falls a low 112 among 139 countries for the burden faced by businesses in wading through government regulations/bureaucracy. With regard to favouritism in decision making by public officials, this country ranked 116th, and for irregular payments and bribes 79th.

MS: Bureaucracy is a gateway to inefficiency and corruption and all their negative consequences for investment, growth, and job creation.

Taxation:

With regard to its total tax rate, Jamaica is 105 on the GCI, but on the extent and effect of taxation, the country is ranked 121.

MS: High taxes suck away cash from firms. That money ought to have been invested for the growth and development of the firms.

Low Labour Productivity:

On pay and productivity, Jamaica ranks 116 on the GCI, and 115 for labour-employee relations.

MS: The Jamaican labour force is becoming progressively and comparatively less productive and, therefore, more and more uncompetitive vis-a-vis workers in other countries.

Failure to reform labour laws:

For flexibility of wage determination, Jamaica is 65th on the GCI, 95th for redundancy costs, and 59th for hiring and firing practices.

MS: The failure of government, unions, and private sector to quickly agree and implement labour-market reform to allow for production-based pay, flexi hours, reform of redundancy legislation.

Education:

With regard to secondary enrolment, Jamaica ranked 55th among the 139 countries, and 86th for enrolment at the tertiary level. For quality of education, the country ranked 98th, and was 115th for the quality of its education in math and science.

MS: The failure of the education and training system to produce sufficiently highly educated and high-value workers, who can add real value to the productive process, do high-end technical, technological, and scientific work, and, therefore, help to spawn new and innovative businesses and/or make existing businesses more competitive.

Rosalea Hamilton

Poor Governance

On the matter of trust for politicians, Jamaica is 107 of the 139 countries, and 64th for transparency on government policy making.

RH : There is inadequate information to inform appropriate policies for business, especially MSMEs.

High Energy cost

At around 29 US cents per KWh, Jamaica has among the highest electricity rates in the Caribbean.

RH: This contributes to high production costs, especially for manufacturing, and limits price competitiveness.

Unfriendly/unsupportive and bureaucratic government ministries and agencies:

RH This contributes to business inefficiency and high costs.