THE MINISTER of Finance Dr. Omar Davies has been once again chiding the private sector. This time it is over the seeming unwillingness of the sector to buy up the assets that are being sold by FINSAC.
According to the Minister the reluctance of the private sector to step forward and buy up the assets held by FINSAC was yet another example of the extreme difficulty that the Government faced in forging partnerships with the local private sector.
The blanket condemnation of the private sector is perhaps less than fair. The hotel sector has done reasonably well in buying up the hotels, which fell under FINSAC's control, and there are other instances where local investors have bought up assets that were being divested by FINSAC. In any event the assets that FINSAC now holds and is desirous of selling were owned by members of the Jamaican private sector many of whom in the face of high interest rates and declining business activity found themselves unable to service bank loans. All of this has to be seen in the context of an economy that has not grown for four consecutive years and has had negligible growth in the last 10. A scenario, which makes most business people risk averse.
Dr. Davies never tires of stating that the Trinidadian private sector seems very willing to acquire the FINSAC assets and has drawn the conclusion that they are therefore displaying more confidence in the Jamaican economy than their local counterparts.
Confidence, we would remind the Minister, comes a lot easier when you are operating in a buoyant economy with interest rates in single digits, and an exchange rate, which makes your investments in Jamaica outright bargains.
The opinions on this page, except for the above, do not necessarily reflect the views of The Gleaner.
