Letter of the Day | Jamaica needs new economic strategies
Published:Saturday | October 19, 2024 | 12:06 AM
THE EDITOR, Madam:
Jamaica needs a close examination of our economic strategies, to move itself from poverty to prosperity.
Bauxite/alumina – Besides the fact that all the operators are foreign-controlled, we have a situation where our hard-fought-for levy of the 1970s has been essentially removed. Hence, other than the employees and some contractors, we get little benefit in terms of levy or taxes, and we are left with disgruntled and displaced small farmers, and destroyed forests and gaping holes in our landscape, often filled with red-mud residue, which poses a threat of contamination to our groundwater.
The glory days of bauxite mining and the so-called benefits to our small island economy are long gone, and this entire industry needs to be phased out as soon as possible.
Tourism – We praise tourism as our leading employer and in terms of numbers of visitors and forex earnings. But, how do we fare in relation to taxes and retention of the forex earned?
The greater part of the foreign exchange does not even enter Jamaica, as the multinational corporations (who now control the majority of our industry) only repatriate enough to pay their workers (as little as possible) and buy a few necessary or cheaper goods on the local market.
The larger hotels, meanwhile, get tax holidays, so pay only a head tax and no income tax. The skew is therefore against the mainly local, small community-based hoteliers and attractions who are rapidly dying on the limb!
This explains why the areas surrounding the major resorts are slums or squatter settlements with little or no proper services and high crime rates.
If we continue depending on foreign investment attracted via massive tax incentives, we will forever be in a race to the bottom of the pile regarding economic development.
We must change our focus and provide encouragement and incentives to our local and diaspora investors in boutique tourism properties and agro industry, and cease giving our best real estate to foreign investors at bargain rates, subject to corruption and free of taxes, and stop treating our locals as if colonial masters still rule us.
Further, the vision of Jamaica as a global logistics and manufacturing hub, which path we started on with the China-Caribbean Trade and Investment Fair in 2005, must be rekindled and our ports must be a major focal point.
ROBERT STEPHENS