MINISTER OF Finance and Planning, Dr. Omar Davies, says his priority this year is to push for economic recovery and growth.
The economy grew by 3.4 per cent up to September last year, Dr. Davies said at a press briefing at the Ministry on Friday. But a number of negative factors in the last quarter of the 2001 calendar year resulted in the estimated real Gross Domestic Product growth of just 2 per cent for the full year, suggesting a significant decline in the last quarter.
"My intention in this new year is to give increased attention to the real sector," Dr. Davies said. 'Real' sectors of the economy, as opposed to the monetary sectors, are those producing tangible goods and services.
Apart from the September terrorist attacks in the United States, the country also suffered flood rains in November which depressed agricultural production and affected mining. Mining was also affected by labour issues in the September to December quarter.
Declines are also anticipated in transportation, because of the decline in air travel. The drop in tourism and agriculture are expected to impact on manufacturing, and distribution and government services are also expected to be negatively impacted by the tougher economic climate.
The post-September developments have not only shown the need to attempt to revive those sectors which have been adversely affected, "but perhaps equally important, to encourage diversification by ensuring growth in a range of other sectors," Dr. Davies said.
"That is a partial explanation to the government's explicit commitment to assist the sugar industry," he said. This has come in terms of support for the Sugar Corporation of Jamaica and easing the debt problems of cane farmers.
"We have also sought to assist the tourism sector to recover from the post-September downturn," he said.
Although the information technology sector has received a great deal of negative publicity "it still represents a major potential area of growth particularly in terms of employment for young people," he said. "We should not react to the difficulties which have cropped up by throwing out the baby with the bath water. We need to identify the operational deficiencies and correct them."
