Private sector ready to provide concrete, meaningful support

Below is an excerpt from remarks delivered by Joseph M. Matalon, president of the Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica (PSOJ), during the organisation's Christmas luncheon held last Wednesday at The Jamaica Pegasus hotel, New Kingston.

AS WE approach the start of 2012 and the celebration of 50 years of Jamaica's Independence, I would like to share with you some information on an initiative that the PSOJ has endorsed, called Grand Jamaica Homecoming 2012. This is a national Canadian diaspora initiative that:

encourages, inspires and informs Jamaicans, friends of Jamaica and those who wish to visit Jamaica, to come home next year, as part of our 50th anniversary of Independence celebration.

will serve to reconnect Jamaicans in the diaspora with the land of their birth, as well as impact economically, socially and psychologically on Jamaicans in Jamaica.

is governed by an advisory council, whose chairman is Douglas Orane, and whose patrons are Jamaican-Canadian philanthropists and business titans, Michael Lee Chin and G. Raymond Chang.

Grand Jamaica Homecoming has established links with a number of leading companies in Jamaica and The PSOJ will be sharing with you additional information on this initiative so that you can determine the nature and level of your involvement and support.

Prime Minister (Andrew Holness), just over two years ago - on the occasion of another PSOJ event at which our then prime minister was also the keynote speaker - I observed that as we faced the challenges of the fallout from the global economic crisis as a nation, we had passed through a series of crossroads along the road to our current circumstances, each of which had presented certain choices in terms of policy direction; choices that we ourselves as a people had made; and posed the question, 'Where do we go from here?' Will we now finally make the difficult decisions so often avoided in the past?

Making difficult decisions

Since that time, we have, indeed, made some of those difficult decisions that have provided for a more stable, but still very fragile macroeconomic environment. But I believe it is fair to say that much has also been left undone, and completion of that work, in the context of continuing global economic uncertainty, has, if anything, become even more urgent than it then was.

As we look to Government for leadership, for the courage to move decisively in an altogether different direction, as we did then, we again offer our hand in partnership.

The theme of your address, 'The way forward for Jamaica: Private-Public Partnerships in addressing the Challenges and Opportunities Ahead' is most appropriate and welcome. For I believe, in the current crisis that we face, that unless all stakeholders - Government, Opposition, private sector, the labour movement and civil society - can find the courage to hold hands and build consensus around those key changes in policy that will put us on a different path, then this would have been just another crossroad along a road to economic and social stagnation that Jamaica has travelled, with only brief digressions, since Independence.

We must once and for all grasp the opportunity to do those things that will restore the confidence of the Jamaican people in a bright future:

The series of long-overdue economic reforms in the area of tax policy and administration; transforming the public sector into a lean and efficient provider of public goods and services; and putting the state pension system on a sustainable footing.

The series of long-overdue legal and regulatory reforms that will earn Jamaica the reputation of being the investment destination of choice in the region for its ease of doing business.

Redoubling our efforts and building on the gains made over the last year in tackling the scourge of crime and violence that plagues our society.

And finally, and perhaps most importantly, stamping out corruption wherever it exists and raising our standards of governance so as to ensure that taxpayers receive maximum value for their hard-earned tax dollars.

Bold action must be our mantra and the private sector stands ready to provide concrete and meaningful support to this end, firm in the belief that as proud Jamaicans we have the capacity to create a future that will finally fulfil the hopes and dreams of the founding fathers of this young nation.