The Jamaican Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller in one her usual grand announcements and PR job, indicated back in 2012 the creation of a possible 40,000 jobs. In what was a historic occasion, the GOJ and the Jamaica Chamber of Commerce signed a Memorandum of Understanding , which was said to be the first of any kind in this country and offered much hope for the people.
The day was Sept 10, 2012 see caption below of the Prime Minister of Jamaica , the Minister of Labour and the President of the Jamaica Chamber of Commerce signing this historic document.
Photo Ops for the Prime Minister below
Derrick accepts signed MOU from the Prime Minister
Credits : Jamaica Information Service (JIS)
This was what the Prime Minister had to say back then.
“My government is committed to finding real solutions to the problems confronting Jamaicans. This (programme) is for the possibility of creating 40,000 new jobs in the Jamaican economy over time. I am as committed to the idea that if every private sector entity was to employ at least one professionally qualified unemployed Jamaican, we could put a dent in the level of unemployment in this country,” she said.
“The agreement is based on a genuine co-operation and understanding between the government and the private sector. Nothing meaningful will be achieved in this country without genuine stakeholder co-operation,” the Prime Minister emphasised.
These were the comments from the Minister of Labour
Meanwhile, Minister Kellier said the agreement will see the government and the private sector working together as a team to target professionally qualified Jamaicans, who are currently unemployed or who are having difficulty finding employment.
“As a job creation strategy ‘Jamaica Employ’ makes sense to us in the Ministry of Labour and Social Security,” he said. “We are very certain that its success, like the Jamaica Emergency Employment Programme (JEEP), will guarantee to the society over time, greater levels of social stability, improvement in our work ethics and culture, levels of skills transfer and cohesion between government and the private sector,” the Labour Minister said.
Source : Jamaica Information Service
Fast forward to almost exactly one year later and looking at the results of the Prime Minister and her Labour Ministry grand announcement.
The Jamaica Gleaner of today September 5, 2013 is reporting the following.
ONLY TWO per cent of persons who signed up to the Jamaica Employ programme has landed interviews, and it is unclear how many have landed jobs.
This means of the 40,000 potential jobs that Portia Simpson Miller boldly announced a year ago, only a paltry 800 persons have had an interview, with no record of how many actually landed a job. By any standard and if we assume that a massive 50% of those interviewed actually got jobs, it would mean the Prime Minister’s much touted job creation plan only created a meagre 400 jobs or 1% of the stated target.
I have often said on the blog, that in order to hold our leaders accountable, we must demand that they provide us documented performance targets, this we can then use to measure their performance to determine if they are doing good or bad.
Using that yardstick, it can be clearly seen that the target set by the Government has been missed by miles, but don’t expect to hear a word from the Prime Minister on why Jamaica Employ was such a colossal failure, that is the responsibility of the Derrick Keiller, the labour Minister.
Portia Simpson Miller only accepts responsibility for making the initial announcement and will only comment again if the announced initiative is a success, if failure is eminent or has occurred. it’s the minister with Portfolio responsibility who is thrust in front of the media to state any such failures.
Our Prime Minister takes responsibly only for success but passes on failure to her cabinet.
Filed under: Jobs, Public Information |
Warren's Blog 
The Jamaica Employ program like its sister JEEP was still birthed. No company is in business for charity and the notion that a company will employ more workers than what it needs is ludicrous.
What really grated me was that no one in the media highlighted the folly of this initiative. Everyone now is so afraid of rocking the boat or they will be labelled enemies of the state by the Portia mafia.
The leeway given to this government is astounding. No matter the disrespect and shunning being meted out to the media and by extension the public at large this government is still seen as the last hope for Jamaica.
The media is just lapping up wranglings happening in the JLP camp because they know that if the wounds are not healed by the time of the next election their favoured PNP will win again.
This letter was published in the observer some time ago I wrote it
FACTS AND FALLACIES
THE EDITOR, SIR:
Elections are won on waves of populism and not substantial messages, it easier to appeal to the emotions of voters than to challenge them intellectually. Furthermore, most prospective voters don’t usually care about long term solutions, hence politicians make unrealistic promises and when they fail to deliver voters complain, but it is the same voters who refused to rigorously analyze the candidate’s claim and then they wonder why politicians don’t respect them. However, there are some political gimmicks that never get old; in the heat of most elections, candidates usually promise to create jobs or give private entrepreneurs incentives to create jobs, this plan always fail, because it is not logical for it to succeed. Government is expected to create an economic environment which is conducive to growth, then jobs and investments will come. Firms only create jobs when there is an incentive to do so, since private businesses are not welfare organizations, they do not employ people to meet social objectives and this is why the government’s emergency programmes are not doing so well. Contrary to the popular belief, it is investments in capital equipment and research which drive growth in the long term not consumer spending, so view that emergency job programmes are good, because they employ people who will later boost consumer spending is false, but elections are won on these false idealogies unfortunately. There is no need for an activist state. According to research conducted by UCLA’S economists, Harold L. Cole and Lee E.Ohanian, the interventionist policies of Frankin Roosevelt actually prolonged the Great Depression by seven years. Fallacious idealogies are able to permeate the political scene because too many supposedly intelligent individuals share these views. The agricultural sector is one of the areas where these fallacies exist. Many Jamaicans are of the view that we should impose tariffs on imported products or even create a negative list, this concept is bordering on insanity, because Jamaica lacks the capacity to replace its imports, we don’t produce goods in sufficient quantities for local consumption. Therefore, we should really heed the advice of Ambassador Amadei. The European Union’s ambassador to Jamaica at a recent forum said that, “I think the key is not to increase production and, therefore produce more distortion in the market but to take measures to make the national produce more efficient and to invest in research and technology.” (Gleaner, February 28 2013).
Small markets do not enable economies of scale, nor do they encourage competition, import substitution should not be our aim, our aim should be exporting competitive products. South Korea has a dynamic economy, but protectionist policies exist in the agricultural sector and it is still inefficient. Hong Kong and Singapore rank first and second respectively on the Economic Freedom Index, both countries have low barriers to trade and high rates of growth. Tariffs only lead to higher prices for consumers and greater inefficiencies. Although innovation is crucial to growth in a modern economy, it is not an attractive topic for voters, during an election you rarely hear politicians speaking about the need to reform the country’s intellectual property laws, but they do make economically unsustainable policies which they are unable to fulfil, especially to public sector employees. Entrepreneurship and innovation can only thrive in a country when strong intellectual property laws exist. In Denmark SMEs are able to access important information regarding intellectually property free of charge online. SMEs are more likely to invest in R&D and innovation, when they know that their products will be protected; so reforming a country’s law intellectual property laws makes perfect economic sense, but elections are not won on tangible policies. Populism will lead to Jamaica’s downfall, in the words of The Economist, “Detroit shows what can happen when leaders put off reforming the public sector for too long,”. Jamaica’s economic crises have been in existence for many years and since public sector reform is moving really slow and pension reform has been extended to 2016, we may end up worse than Detroit, and we will have no one to blame but voters who refused to test unsound policies.
Lipton Matthews
Very good points Lipton. As you rightly suggest, no one wants cerebral types of message during election campaign or should I say those who want to hear have little or no impact on the outcome of the election.
Who should a politician play to ?. the people who talk about substance and intellect, but never vote, or the people who care about bread and butter issues and do vote .
I suggest that you ask D. Tufton for his opinion on that. because he must still be having nightmares
Continue fall for nothingness and then cry later when the country is scraping the bottom of the barrel.
Calsonic, pnp supporters don’t care about long term growth and development. They fell for all the white elephants like Harmony Cove, Highway 2000 and the Cricket world cup stadium. Mr. Hylton claimed that he does not know if there is a written proposal for the Goat Islands, the government is confused and people like cullcull will do nothing
Government shelves Jamaica employ , of course there was no announcement of this right.
http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20140714/lead/lead9.html
Jay stupid Jamaicans actually thought that the programme would work
@ FACTS AND FALLACIES
THE EDITOR, SIR:
—————————-
Did you vote ?. Will you vote the next election ? Talking without action also perpetuates the current process.
I will not vote in the next election. Cullcull, I am not interested in political rhetoric only sensible policies, the pnp and the jlp have no ideas to propel the country forward and to think otherwise would be absurd. However, sometime in the future I may stat a think tank
will not vote in the next election. Cullcull, I am not interested in political rhetoric only sensible policies, the pnp and the jlp have no ideas to propel the country forward and to think otherwise would be absurd. However, sometime in the future I may start
a think tank
Reply
I will not vote in the next election. Cullcull, I am not interested in political rhetoric only sensible policies, the pnp and the jlp have no ideas to propel the country forward and to think otherwise would be absurd. However, sometime in the future I may start
a think tank
you then are the worst of the lot. We are in a boat trying to find land, you are complaining that no one knows the right direction, but you refuse to row.
Talking and complaining. A THINK THANK WILL GO NOWHERE !!!! without people who will actually do things.
Think Tanks provides policy, unlike other Jamaicans I will create ideas and not depend on ignorant politicians to solve problems
A Think Tank provides policy, unlike other Jamaicans I will create ideas and not depend on ignorant politicians to solve problems
Let me make sure I understand where you are coming from. YOU are going to create a “Think Tank” and create a laundry list of ideas and policies and then what? Publish a book?
I would think you need to move those ideas from the policy stage to actual implementation and in so doing, would need to engage “The ignorant Politicians”. Boy oh boy and they say you, Lipton, has a bright future……I say our corner dark bad bad…..
Interestingly I head Richard Byles suggesting we need a think tank to formulate economic strategies and these folks would then provide oversight for the implementation process.
Now Richard is one of the “bright” sparks in Jamaica at this point in time.
I wonder if these means our corner dark.
Your own comment points to moving from ideas/strategies to actual implementation. I guess you need to read my previous comment since you seem to miss the salient point embedded in those comments. Why did you not understand? Jay, your corner is indeed dark and I don’t think it has anything to do with the fact that you are a card carrying member of the DARK Party.
Think on this, There can be no leadership, without follower ship. There can be no good idea without knowing how to implement..
Action, not a bag a mouth
I am a man of ideas, I don’t have time for political rhetoric. Ideas will enrich our lives not politicians like PSM
PUBLISHED IN GLEANER
TREAT AGRICULTURE LIKE A BUSINESS
Government’s role is to create an economic environment that will promote free enterprise and dynamic growth. Therefore, the Government must not be in the business of operating enterprises.
Agriculture is a business, but instead of managing it like a viable enterprise, successive administrations have perpetuated the dependency syndrome by constantly subsidising some of its industries. Although the banana industry has been the beneficiary of substantial assistance, not only is the sector still ailing, but it also lacks modernisation.
Political leaders seem not to realise that pumping funds into any sector, without making it more competitive, will not solve the problem. And to compound the issue, some farmers become perpetually reliant on Government, expecting a bailout whenever the sector is in shambles.
No politician wants to be seen as being anti-poor, but populist policies will make us all poorer in the long term. Government should treat agriculture like a business and refrain from subsidising ailing aspects of the industry.
There should be a greater focus on improving agricultural productivity through innovation and private investment. Hence, funds that are set aside for the revitalisation of failing sectors, like sugar and banana, by using the same archaic methods, must be diverted to more productive activities
For example, many young people may have ideas to transform agriculture, but they lack the capital to make their vision a reality. Since Jamaica is a recipient of agricultural aid, the Government could use this money to create an Innovation Fund for Agriculture, thereby providing youngsters with an opportunity to commercialise their ideas and develop new technologies that will make Jamaica’s agriculture more competitive.
But, in order to reduce losses, applicants must be selected via a merit-based selection process, with the viability of their business plans being the major factor for selection. Technical support in the form of training and financial advice will also be offered.
Furthermore, arable lands that are owned by the State should be divested to either foreign or local investors with the capital and technology to revolutionise agriculture. Government’s involvement in agriculture has been dismal and the recent controversy surrounding the agro park project is a perfect example.
Reforms are difficult to implement, but if we are interested in becoming a wealthy nation, they must be pursued.
Lipton Matthews
Comrades cannot understand this concept, which why they keep doing the same things over and over again and expect different results.