The malaise gripping the Jamaican economy has started to contaminate Jamaican businesses and markets, but one private-sector leader is refusing to join the pack.
Don Wehby, chief executive officer of GraceKennedy Limited, says businesses cannot allow themselves to be paralysed by the lack of an agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), saying there was work to be done to create economic value.
"The private sector has a significant role to play in moving Jamaica forward. We need to take the lead as it relates to a growth agenda. We need to stop being forecasters of doom, and acting so as to avert any crisis that lay down the road," Wehby said Wednesday in a luncheon speech to the board of directors of the Jamaica Chamber of Commerce (JCC).
"We need to start investing as a private-sector group and stop waiting on an IMF deal. Let's find a way to see what opportunities there are, even at this tough time," he said.
Wehby reminded the group that the widely discussed and well-anticipated IMF agreement does not exist in a vacuum.
"What we need to remember is that it is not just signing an IMF agreement, but we need to consider what will come next. Signing the IMF agreement might sound like a saviour but after the agreement is signed that is when the real work will begin ... and we need to prepare for that," he said.
Past president of the chamber, Milton Samuda, agreed with Wehby, pointing out that "whether or not we get an agreement in place we still have to focus on growing out of the current economic conundrum".
Wehby complimented the Government for the work on pension reform, public-sector transformation and the White Paper on tax reform tabled in Parliament on Tuesday.
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