Knight urges business sector to be more creative
Published:Friday | April 8, 2011 | 12:00 AM
Edmond Campbell, Senior Staff Reporter
OPPOSITION SENATOR K.D. Knight has declared that Jamaica's business sector lacks vision.
During yesterday's sitting of the Senate, Knight challenged the sector to become more creative and pursue new entrepreneurial ventures instead of clinging to the "traditional".
A tough-talking Knight quipped that he often got into trouble for some of his comments.
He labelled the business sector as "buyers and sellers", noting that they peddle items manufactured in countries like China.
"People manufacture some slippers in China and they flood the market with slippers here and they manufacture some other non-descript products and the marketplace is flooded here," the senator pointed out.
Debating a bill in the Senate yesterday which seeks to remove the requirement of a work permit for certain CARICOM nationals to work in Jamaica, Knight suggested that for too long Jamaica's business sector had remained in their traditional comfort zone.
"The cry always is, we don't have enough incentives so we can't use indigenous material to manufacture, and yet I don't think so.
"I don't think that they have shown enough vision, I don't think they have shown enough will to break out of the tradition," he argued.
Knight noted that there were few businesses in Jamaica that had a research and development component to their operations.
flood expected
"Too much reliance is placed on the Scientific Research Council," he added.
The opposition senator argued that when legislation was passed in 2005 to give effect to the single market, many people felt that there would be a "flood of persons" from other states to displace Jamaicans. He said other CARICOM states had a similar view of Jamaica.
Knight questioned whether Jamaicans had exploited various opportunities that had arisen in other CARICOM states.
"It is my honest belief that from the information available to me, that we have not really grasped as a nation the importance of having this single market," Knight argued. He said Jamaicans still felt that CARICOM could not provide the opportunities they needed, and therefore looked to North America and Europe.
The legislators in the Upper House passed the Foreign Nationals and Commonwealth Citizens (Employment) (Amendment) Act, 2011, with no adjustment.