Business View Caribbean - January 2015 31
progress was made?”
PHILLIPS:
I think the important lessons that we have
learned from this all is first of all, that we have to
maintain strict rules of fiscal discipline still, because
it seems clear that the debt is still too high and that
in itself constitutes a major impediment and deterrent
to investment and investor confidence. So, that we will
maintain prudent fiscal management and continue to
trend the debt down, I think the message of Jamaica’s
successful performance certainly caught the attention
of not only the Fund, with whom we are overseeing the
program implementation, but of the other multilater-
als, to the World Bank.
The second major task is to ensure we continue to
improve the environment for doing business, to im-
prove our customs processing, our tax administration
arrangements and to effectively coordinate our own
major investment activities that are taking place in
tourism and agriculture, important infrastructure, and
these other areas. I mentioned the MSME and in par-
ticular, I want to mention that there are a number of
proposals that are being in effect now for venture capi-
tal operations here in the country and that is reflective,
particularly of a lot of international interests, of our
paying attention to what is happening in Jamaica and
that there are many proposals to establish venture
capital funds in Jamaica, and we expect these venture
capital funds to get active here in the 2015 year.
Another critical element is, of course, on energy and
we are currently evaluating proposals and moving
forward with proposals to install additional energy
generating capacity in the country and more modern
generating capacity and overall at reducing the cost of
energy in the country, which is an essential element in
the revival of the bauxite alumina and the mining sec-
tor and our manufacturing sector. These proposals are
underway and the Noble Group, as you may know, has
bought out Alcoa’s interest in one of the mining opera-
tions in Jamaica that operates in a partnership with
the government of Jamaica, and they are proceeding
as well to evaluate and install new energy solutions,
as is the case with UC Rusal which also has mining
interests in the bauxite alumina sector. And, so, energy
is one of the other critical areas where we are seeing
very strong investor interest and activity.
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