September 2015 Issue Business View Caribbean

12 September 2015 - Business View Caribbean to facilitate the ease of doing business – we have jumped in the World Bank global competitiveness rankings back up 36 places and all of that shows that the reform is underway. What we are focusing on now is trying to augment the rates of global growth as best we can and to facilitate levels of employment. I should mention also that unemployment numbers are down. So, is the pace as quick as we would want? It is within the program projection, but we certainly want to get more. BUSINESS VIEW: We spoke recently with one of the people that’s on the Economic Programme Oversight Committee and we were talking a little bit about the workers population in the country and the necessity that there be some tangible sort of progress that they’re able to see, that pays off some of the sacri- fices that they’ve had to make over the last several years. Do you feel that the population has seen what it needs to see in terms of progress? PHILLIPS : Well, it depends on which sector you’re talk- ing about. For example, the cane farmers participat- ing in the sugar cane industry are getting some of the higher prices for their cane delivered to manufactur- ers. The coffee farmers who are selling to entities re- cently privatized are getting double the prices for their coffee. In the manufacturing sector, there’s still much Dr. the Hon. Peter Phillips, Minister and Finance and Planning and Ms. Therese Turner-Jones, Country Representative- IDB, sign the instruments for the third phase of the Citizen Security and Justice Programme. Seated to the far left is The Hon. Peter Bunting, MP, Minister of National Security and to the far right is Mr. Robert Ready, Canadian High Commis- sioner. - Photographer: Maurice Williams