It cannot be that the Jamaican construction industry that designed and built the National Stadium, Conference Centre, New Kingston, and the Bank of Jamaica is being told that in order to redevelop Downtown Kingston and construct the new Parliament building, we have to get foreign expertise to build. It is full time to review the policies that we have pursued over the years.

The unavailability of accessible micro-finance for new venture creation has been a challenge in many potential entrepreneurs’ lives. Potential youth entrepreneurs have been given nothing more than a promise of microcredit as they continue to struggle to acquire small loans to invest in their business ideas and/or grow their entrepreneurial ventures

For more than three decades successive governments have promised major transformation of the public sector to make it more efficient and cost effective. Despite minimal success, these efforts have failed to achieve their majour objectives. Now it appears that the domestic and external conditions are aligned to make success possible.

Ensuring stable electricity rates at low enough prices to encourage production for sustainable economic growth is the stated goal of the National Energy Policy (2009-2030). A key element of the policy is diversification of fuel sources to include renewables.

Data are the lifeblood of decision-making and the raw material for accountability. Without high-quality data providing the right information on the right things at the right time; designing, monitoring and evaluating effective policies becomes almost impossible.

This symposium provides an opportunity to share some thoughts and dialogue on a very important issue in our 51st year of Independence. We need to think about the ways in which we can collectively collaborate to achieve objectives.We have to think about how we convert these large visions and dreams into a reality within the context that we operate in.

Because of the size and scope of the the project, China Harbour Engineering Company (CHEC) examined various locations and determined that the Goat Islands was the best and most cost effective location to achieve the objectives they contemplated

Exploring how Jamaica can create a roadmap to guide the country to eventually realizing its very strong potential to be a leader in the world's US $113-billion sports industry.

 A study by Jamaica Productivity Centre (JPC) offers evidence of the performance gap between JPS power generation and other domestic power producers; ranks the JPS distribution operations among the least efficient in the region for total distribution losses, non-technical losses and reliability; and places JPS in the group with the highest electricity prices. At issue is whether modifications to the current operations of JPS and changes to the orientation of regulation could deliver significant short term benefits by way of lower electricity prices.

 While the Government is pre-occupied with resolving the differences with the IMF to smooth the way for the release of more funds under the Standby Agreement with the Fund, there are long run problems that are in need of far more policy attention. As with previous agreements with the IMF the “tyranny of the immediate” need to meet targets continues to place on the back burner long-term policy attention to social and economic development.

Jamaica has passed the first three quarterly performance tests required by the 27-month Stand-By Agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) signed in January 2010. The US$1.27-billion loan is disbursed in tranches subject to meeting the conditionalities of the Agreement. To get the loan request approved and receive the first drawdown of approximately US$610-million, the government had to take “prior actions” in the form of imposing a tax package equivalent to 2% of GDP in December 2009, completing the Jamaica Debt Exchange (JDX), and selling Air Jamaica, both by January 2010.

 The Jamaica Debt Exchange has succeeded in slowing the rate of ‘crowding out’ private sector borrowers from financial institutions as government’s demand for funds has been reduced. However, for the JDX to achieve longterm success there must be some immediate accompanying measures including stability in monetary policy; creating an efficient market for interest rate and significant reduction in the cost of financial transactions.