Phillips commits to strong working relationship with business
Published:Wednesday | January 25, 2012 | 12:00 AM
In his first open forum with top corporate heads, Finance Minister Dr Peter Phillips is signalling that he wants to develop a strong working relationship with the private sector.
On Tuesday, he held up public assets that are to be privatised as an area of opportunity.
"This Government is committed to strengthening the partnership with the private sector so as to put Jamaica on a path of sustainable growth," said Phillips, addressing the Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica's (PSOJ) Chairman's Club forum yesterday.
The finance minister reaffirmed his commitment to a stronger working relationship with the private sector, speaking to an audience of private sector leaders at the Wyndham Hotel in Kingston.
"It is time to accelerate private sector-led growth," he said.
Within that context, Phillips said the government is committed to providing the right macroeconomic framework needed to support business initiatives, including the maintenance of a low interest-rate policy.
"There is no policy of high interest rates and there will be none," said Phillips.
Touting the need for a paradigm shift with greater collaboration and shared vision, Phillips said he is hoping the private sector will become more proactive in areas such as the divestment of government owned assets and other long term investments.
"This new paradigm should be characterised by a greater degree of confidence between all of us, which can only be built by the kind of collaboration which leads to a shared vision, and for this collaboration to be meaningful we will need to develop a more structured approach to dialogue among the various stakeholders in the economy," Phillips said.
"In this paradigm, I hope to see a more proactive private sector involved in the Government-divestment programme, which will involve transferring non-productive or sub-optimal entities into productive hands in the private sector."
Last week, Prime Minister Simpson Miller also implored companies to hire at least one more qualified worker, saying a buy-in of the 'Jamaica Employ' programme could create 40,000 jobs.
PSOJ president Joseph Matalon and his counterpart at the Jamaica Chamber of Commerce, Milton Samuda, were both lukewarm to the suggestion.
The prime minister said at the weekend, however, that she had got positive responses from some individual businesses.