Business View Caribbean - February 2016 63
are very conservative. We’re looking at figures of 1 to
1.5, but based on the presentations that have been
made to us in terms of the large investment opportuni-
ties, there is a dependence on those coming through
to be able to ramp up the growth much faster. And if
those do come through, then the projections are that
by 2020, we should be looking at economic growth in
the order of at least 3-4 percent as a conservative fig-
ure. But everything depends on those projects really
getting off the ground and being successful, which is
one of the reasons why we said to the government that
what we need to do is have an interim program as well
that deals with what people generally refer to as low-
hanging fruit.
If we can talk about spurring economic growth by im-
port substitution activities that would ensure that we
have employment and that there’s investment in small
to medium enterprises in the short to medium term,
then when we are going longer down the road, we fig-
ure that by that time we would be at a point where we
could now talk about projecting economic growth of
a much higher level than what is projected now. Be-
cause, what is projected now is about 1 to 1.5 percent
each year.
BUSINESS VIEW: So, needless to say, the next couple
of years are very important to making sure this kind of
turnaround actually gets started.
DAVIS-WHYTE: It is, and that is why we are commit-
ted to ensuring that it happens, because if it doesn’t,
I think we are going to have an entire population that
is going to be so turned off, that we may be looking
at anarchy if people really don’t feel that anything
would have been gained from this period of sacrifice.
Because, really, what we are looking at, certainly on
the part of public sector workers, is that we have gone
through five years of a wage freeze. The workers have
accepted that this would’ve been the sacrifice that
they would’ve made to be able to put Jamaica on a
path to sustain economic progress and this is why we
have to ensure that it happens.
Because, if it doesn’t, we are going to end up with our
workforce and the population that is going to be so
de-motivated that I think we would have serious social
problems.
