Private Sector worried about economic decline

Mar 22, 2017 News

-Says Govt. needs to bring an economic plan that actually drives investment
The Private Sector Commission (PSC) is worried about the fact that the main driver of the nation’s 2.6 percent growth in 2016 was the gold industry. Strip that away, and the picture that remains tells an unsettling truth—the economy is in decline.
With this in mind, the Commission is saying that the Government needs to bring an economic plan and a vision that will actually drive investment into the country. The body said that it is also willing to help the government in this “time of trouble,” as it believes that the state of the economy is everyone’s business.
Particularly making this, among other statements recently, is the head of the Private Sector Commission, Eddie Boyer.
In an interview with this newspaper, Boyer said, “They should first look at why people are not investing. People want to live, work, recreate, educate and study in an environment where they are free from fear and uncertainty.”
He added, “If we can’t rein in crime, nothing else matters. This is a big issue because we receive a lot of complaints from businessmen and the various Chambers around the country. Let me put it this way, even if you have significant improvement in education, health and tourism but you do not have that improvement in the crime rate, then you wouldn’t get investment…”
Furthermore, the PSC Chairman emphasized that the business community needs to see some economic policies from the government, apart from what was inherited.
“When you look at the growth rate, gold seems to be the only leading denominator and other sectors are declining. The government’s economic policy needs to be able to change this state of affairs. Their vision needs to be able to stimulate the other industries…,” Boyer noted.
He said that the Commission is not complaining but simply saying that “this is what we have on our hands, and we need to find ways of fixing it now.”
According to the most recent Economic Bulletin prepared by the Ministry of Finance, it was noted that various sectors performed poorly.
The Economic Policy Analysis Unit noted that economic growth up to November, of 2016, was spurred particularly by growth in the mining sector.
“While strong performances continued in the gold, diamond and quarrying industries, the agricultural sector continued to underperform. The El Niño phenomenon was partly to be blamed for the dismal performance in the rice and sugar industries during the first half of the year (2016),” the Unit noted.
It continued, “However, late planting in both industries (rice and sugar) hampered production for the second crop, and hence production for the second half of the year (2016). In the case of sugar, union strikes during the fourth quarter of the year also affected production adversely.”
The Unit added, “Further, the forestry industry continues to perform poorly as a result of a halt in the awarding of concessions. While this has resulted in lower than expected growth in the forestry sector, these measures are important as the Government aims to reform the industry so as to benefit the nation over the medium-to-long term.”

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