Businessman Omar Azan has again voiced concerns about the continuous devaluation of the Jamaican currency, describing it as a slow-growing cancer.

“The whole issue of the dollar devaluation has created such havoc in our nation, it has basically been drawing us down. No matter what you do, it’s like a slow-growing cancer that brings down Jamaican people and businesses earning in Jamaica dollars,” Azan said.

The former Jamaica Manufacturers’ Association president and the founder and chief executive officer of Boss Furniture Company Limited was speaking at the Project Management Institute Jamaica’s Chapter International Project Management Day 2016 Breakfast and Awards Ceremony at the Knutsford Court Hotel in Kingston yesterday.

“I dare to say that one of Jamaica’s biggest projects was the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and we were successful in passing just about every test. Let us take the same approach to crime-fighting, the existing bureaucracy, poverty, and all other impediments of growth that threaten our country’s growth viability,” he said.

According to Azan, despite talks of the need to devalue the local currency to remain competitive on the global market, the constant slide of the dollar has really never helped the country, and instead is forcing Jamaicans to spend more while negatively impacting the manufacturing sector.

“It’s like taking a pay cut every day. Every day that you go to the supermarket, something goes up, so you have to buy less and less. Many of us are lucky to be employed, but can you imagine the little man that’s not earning much in the local currency? I think as a country we need to come together and assign a project manager to get that thing fixed once and for all,” Azan argued.

He added that Jamaica cannot talk about growth without targeted project management techniques, which could reduce both the country’s domestic and international debts and restructure the manufacturing industry.

Recently, the Jamaica Chamber of Commerce said it was also concerned about the increased pace of devaluation of the Jamaican dollar, which moved from an average rate of US$1 to J$120.24 in January to US$1 = J$125.33 in May.

The chamber said the change in local currency represented a decline of 4.2 per cent since the beginning of the year when the currency traded at J$115.32 to US$1.

Yesterday, the Jamaican dollar traded at $129.25 to US$1.

Nonetheless, director of the Western Hemisphere Department of the IMF, Alejandro Werner, last month defended the devaluation of the local currency, stating that it is at the level where external equilibrium would put it.

“Our assessment is that the currency of Jamaica is firmly valued. We are seeing around emerging markets the exchange rate moving up or down in response to international financial conditions, and when you compare the movements of the Jamaican currency with those that we have seen in Latin America, Canada, New Zealand, it’s within the range of movements and even with less volatility than what we have seen elsewhere,” he said.