GOVERNMENT URGED TO TAKE SERIOUS MEASURES AS PART OF REFORM PROGRAMME:

October 14, 2009

GOVERNMENT URGED TO TAKE SERIOUS MEASURES

AS PART OF REFORM PROGRAMME:

Professor (Emeritus) of Economics at Stanford University, Professor Donald Harris, has put forward a number of reform measures which he believes will help to put the Jamaican economy back on a sound financial footing.

Professor Harris made his presentation this morning at day two of the Jamaica Chamber of Commerce's first national economic forum under the theme ‘Economic growth Agenda', at the Knutsford Court Hotel in Kingston.

His recommendations were contained in his research paper   titled ‘Towards an Export-led Strategy for Jamaica: Lessons from Experience with the national Industrial Policy' and presented at today's session at which Prime Minister Bruce Golding addressed top JCC executives.

Among Professor Harris' recommendations was a call for what he described as a re-thinking of the meaning of leadership. ‘We have to think about the kind of leadership that is not pure charisma...but one that manages the cabinet first and foremost , to ensure everyone does their job right , that they communicate the vision and implement it' .  ‘Good leadership' he said ‘is always surrounded by competent people and what you have to do is pick out the people you can find no matter where they are, whether in government or private sector.'

Other recommendations to deal with what Professor Harris described as the failure of economic strategy and the failure of implementation, called for the separation of development and planning from the Ministry of Finance. He recommended that the Minister of Finance be put back to properly manage the budget,   and called for the reigning in of the statutory bodies to ensure that they balance their books.

He recommended to the Prime Minister that he institutes a  very systematic process of oversight which is a  creative way of  beefing   up the functions of the Auditor General,  the Contractor General and Director of Public Prosecution, to ensure that they do their jobs effectively.

On the issue of productive investments, Professor Harris suggested that a policy to encourage financial innovators, be developed so they will come up with creative ways of creating opportunities for exporters. There is also the need to strengthen the technical and administrative capacity of human resources and to look at how to rejuvenate the executive positions in the executive agencies so as not to allow people to be promoted to top position and left there to vegetate for 15-20 years, Professor Harris added.

Professor Harris, who is a Jamaican, has held numerous distinguished academic positions at the University of Cambridge, UK, Yale University in the US and the Deli School of Economics in India. His current work includes projects for the Inter- American Development Bank, and World Bank in the Bahamas, Dominica, and Trinidad and Tobago. He has completed comparative analysis of export performances in Jamaica, Costa Rica, Dominica Republic, Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago. Professor Harris has published several books and articles on Capital accumulation and Income Distribution, economic development and technological change.