Prioritise critical areas of economy to see meaningful GDP growth - Chung

By Halshane Burke    

 

Financial analyst Dennis Chung wants government to prioritise critical areas of the economy to see meaningful growth.

 

Data shows that for the calendar year 2023, the country's gross domestic product is expected to be just over 2 per cent.

 

Mr. Chung said the country has only been able to realise anemic growth because successive administrations have not taken the decisions and implemented the policies to achieve consequential economic performance.

 

He said there needs to be a reduction in the reliance on food imports, and instead greater focus must be placed on improving the transportation system, labour productivity, and decreasing crime. 

 

If these things can be done, he reasoned, the government could intensify its efforts in tourism, which is a critical earner for Jamaica. 

 

"People always talk about nontraditional exports - mangoes, for example. It's going to be much easier for us to produce mangoes for our tourism market here than to export it, and if you have a 5 per cent growth in tourism, it is much more than a 100 per cent growth in some of these nontraditional exports," he suggested. 

 

Mr. Chung said the authorities must work to further boost tourist arrivals. 

 

While Jamaica boasts of 4 million visitor arrivals, the financial analyst pointed to the Bahamas which he said is welcoming 10 million tourists per year. 

 

"So we need to look at the things that are preventing us from getting to 8 and 10 million tourists a year, and that is where we need to focus, and that's what we're not doing. We're looking at things that really don't move the needle," he argued, adding that Jamaica has the capacity to achieve much greater GDP than it is currently.

 

Mr. Chung was speaking Friday on the Morning Agenda on Power 106.

 

 

Meanwhile, economist and lecturer in the Department of Economics at the UWI, Mona, Dr. Samuel Braithwaite, has called for a rethink of how economic growth is calculated.

 

Interest groups have expressed concern about the failure of the economy to grow beyond the three per cent marker despite significant investments in infrastructure and improvements in other macro-economic indicators.

 

Dr. Braithwaite said there are several other indicators that need to be factored into the economic mix. 

 

"From time to time, countries have to consider how they approach figuring out the level of economic activity in an economy. When you look around Jamaica and you see what's going on in terms of construction, you see the growth in terms of the real estate sector, you look at how some people live in terms of the cars they buy and what have you, and you ask yourself the question, are we truly capturing the full extent of economic activity?

 

"I do recognise illegal activity is part of the pie, but at the same time, I think the question that we need to ask is, are we truly capturing the level of economic activity? Because very often, all we hear are these dismal numbers of how slowly the economy is growing and so on - and I'm not saying that that is an incorrect characterisation - but it very well might be the case that we're low-balling what is happening," he contended. 

 

Dr. Baithwaite was also a guest on the Morning Agenda.