Chairman of Jamaica’s Economic Growth Council (EGC), Michael Lee-Chin, says that council members will be returning to Israel within two months, to continue discussions on economic cooperation.

Lee-Chin, who was a member of the team accompanying Prime Minister Andrew Holness to Israel in mid-January, made the announcement Thursday evening as he answered questions during a function facilitating the council’s first quarterly report to the nation at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel, New Kingston.

“It was a very fertile visit, because it will catalyse a second visit which will happen within the next two months,” he told the meeting.

“We intend to have a meeting with the top 50 Israeli companies and tell them about the great things which are happening in Jamaica, and bring them to Jamaica,” he stated.

He said that, likewise, the council intended to make visits to other countries including Britain, Abu Dhabi, China and the United States to seek additional cooperation.

“Wherever there are incentives, we will go and tell the Jamaican story. So this is just the beginning,” he responded.

Holness left the island on January 10 for a three-day working visit to Israel which resulted from an invitation to the Jamaican government several months prior to the visit.

He and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu discussed several areas of potential economic cooperation. But there has been some speculation at home about timing of the visit on which Holness was accompanied by representatives of the National Water Commission (NWC), the Water Resources Authority (WRA), the National Security Council and the EGC, including its deputy chairman Ambassador Dr Nigel Clarke.

Thursday night, Lee-Chin reported that the council has had 118 meetings with stakeholders, including the Jamaica Manufacturers’ Association (JMA), the Ex-Im Bank, the Development Bank of Jamaica (DBJ), the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).

This has led to the formulation of eight growth principles as follows and the council’s position on them are:

(1) Maintain macro-economic stability and pursue debt reduction strategies:

Macro-economic stability is a prerequisite for economic growth. The stability we enjoy today has been hard earned but remains fragile. High debt poses a systemic risk to the Jamaican economy. Jamaica needs to continue the process of fiscal consolidation with a view to achieving debt sustainability. Economic growth and fiscal responsibility are not mutually exclusive.

(2) Improve citizen security :Improving citizen security is the most consequential growth-inducing reform that Jamaica can undertake. Jamaicans need to experience dramatically improved levels of security and feelings of personal safety. However, it requires a comprehensive approach encompassing judicial and police reform, while also addressing entrenched problems of social exclusion among other measures. Piecemeal, knee-jerk responses that lack depth and perspective are unlikely to improve outcomes.

(3) Improve access to finance :Finance is the oxygen of business. Small-and-medium sized businesses have too hard a problem accessing debt and equity financing. Some of the problems lie with regulatory constraints, competition, and overburdensome taxation.

(4) Pursue bureaucratic reform to improve the business environment: All aspects of the interface between Government and business are in need of reform to improve effectiveness, efficiency and customer service;

(5) Stimulate greater asset utilisation: Increasing the utilisation of dormant and under-utilised assets would have a major impact on employment and growth. The Urban Development Corporation and the Factories Corporation of Jamaica, for example, collectively own approximately $100 billion of assets on which they earn a relatively modest return;

(6) Build human capital — Human capital is too often an undervalued component in the conversation on growth. We need to focus on policies and strategies that nurture human capital development and provide skills training that match the needs of our economy:

(7) Harness the power of the diaspora: The Diaspora represents a very powerful reservoir of capital, relationships, skills and expertise that remains largely untapped. Replicating and leveraging Diaspora engagement models that have been successfully pioneered by India, Ireland, New Zealand, Australia and Chile among other countries would allow Jamaica to more constructively organise and harness the power of the Diaspora for economic growth and social development; and,

(8) Catalyse the implementation of strategic projects:

The council says that these strategic projects are critically important. As Jamaica’s experience has shown, by themselves these projects do not necessarily lead to economic growth at a national level. However, they can transform towns and communities and the focus therefore has to be on strategic projects to ensure timely and efficient implementation.

Deputy Chairman and CEO of the Sandals/ATL Group and a member of the EGC Adam Stewart has pointed out that the growth initiatives recommended by the EGC are not exhaustive, and are not intended to replace government or to be a parallel form of government.

“They cannot solve all of Jamaica’s problems. However, they represent a critical and important subset of what needs to be done to achieve economic growth,” he said.

Other members of the EGC include: trade unionist Senator Kavan Gayle, banker Patrick Hylton retired Port Authority of Jamaica President Noel Hylton and business executives Phillip Gore, Hugh Hart, Paula Kerr-Jarrett and Pat Ramsay.

Thursday’s meeting was highlighted by the first quarterly report from the council. The next report is expected in April.