Out of many, one. . .solution

This week, the Jamaica Chamber of Commerce met to discuss an important question: How do we create jobs in Jamaica?

According the Statistical Institute of Jamaica, the unemployment rate in 2006 hovered around 10 percent.

JCC President Mike Myers told the Caribbean Business Report radio show:

"Jamaica must think outside the box. We need to pick industries where we can compete globally. Then we need to offer incentives, that is, give tax breaks.

In a fascinating interview, the Jamaica Observer spoke with an anonymous retired manufacturer:

The government should embark on a program whereby manufacturers get free land in exchange for building factories and then declare no general consumption tax on Jamaican-made products. That would put idle land to use and give Jamaican products a 16.5 per cent advantage. This would give us a competitive edge and wean the population off foreign goods. Look at it this way, if foreign and Jamaican goods are the same price, people won't buy the local goods, but once Jamaican goods are cheaper people will buy.

The high cost of manufacturing in Jamaica, coupled with the lack of incentives, has not allowed Jamaica to compete globally with industrial countries. Developing solar energy, hydroelectricity, and agriculture would be a good start if Jamaica is ready to emerge as a global force. The Cotonou Agreement (part of the ACP agreementÐyou can view more about that in the last few paragraphs of an earlier post here) that Jamaica signed in 2000 means that the country has a much wider trading scope.

Sources: The Jamaica Observer, The Jamaica Chamber of Commerce, European Commission, The Statistical Institute of Jamaica